Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Position Lessened by Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich trimmed its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 10.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 169,969 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 19,706 shares during the period. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich owned about 0.06% of Ecolab worth $33,713,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ECL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Ecolab by 1.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,875,434,000 after buying an additional 387,545 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Ecolab by 4.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,774,960 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $470,078,000 after buying an additional 123,572 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Ecolab by 1.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,555,758 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $432,945,000 after buying an additional 41,545 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Ecolab by 3.9% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,294,838 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $391,224,000 after buying an additional 85,985 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in Ecolab by 2.3% during the third quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,173,210 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $368,142,000 after buying an additional 48,375 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the subject of several research reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $216.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock traded up $1.31 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $221.10. The company had a trading volume of 1,242,930 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,205,840. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The company has a market capitalization of $63.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $223.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $200.56. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.72 and a 1-year high of $231.86.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The company had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were given a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.03%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.60%.

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.