Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $277.47.

ECL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th.

Insider Activity

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total transaction of $17,216,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,176,511,348.95. The trade was a 0.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last quarter, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. Insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ecolab

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ECL. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 32.7% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $602,000 after buying an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,589,000 after buying an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its holdings in Ecolab by 797.3% during the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,550,000 after buying an additional 15,834 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Ecolab by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $381,552,000 after acquiring an additional 129,635 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of ECL opened at $237.63 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $241.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $245.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market cap of $67.29 billion, a PE ratio of 33.33, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab has a 1 year low of $195.49 and a 1 year high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. Ecolab’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ecolab will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.09%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.

Ecolab Company Profile

Ecolab Inc provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Global Industrial; Global Institutional & Specialty; and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences. The Global Industrial segment offers water treatment and process applications, and cleaning and sanitizing solutions to manufacturing, food and beverage processing, transportation, chemical, metals and mining, power generation, pulp and paper, commercial laundry, petroleum, refining, and petrochemical industries.