Elefante Mark B Invests $234,000 in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Elefante Mark B purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 1,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $234,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Ecolab by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 796,170 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $203,285,000 after purchasing an additional 69,142 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 5.9% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 301,591 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $77,005,000 after buying an additional 16,747 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 1,792 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $420,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Fulton Bank N.A. bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at about $276,000. Finally, Legacy Private Trust Co. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. Legacy Private Trust Co. now owns 5,300 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,242,000 after acquiring an additional 635 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on ECL shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Ecolab from $277.00 to $273.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Argus raised shares of Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Ecolab from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $282.47.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of ECL stock opened at $253.32 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $247.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $247.72. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $220.96 and a 1-year high of $273.69. The company has a market cap of $71.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50. The business had revenue of $3.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.71 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. The company’s revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.34 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.03%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.33%.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan acquired 400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 18,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,964,059.17. The trade was a 2.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 856 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.37, for a total transaction of $228,868.72. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,911.80. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,435 shares of company stock valued at $4,637,985 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.