Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC Lowers Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC cut its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 0.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 303,484 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,310 shares during the period. Ecolab accounts for about 3.6% of Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC owned about 0.11% of Ecolab worth $76,939,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 15.6% in the 1st quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 5,576 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,414,000 after purchasing an additional 754 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in Ecolab by 64.5% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,898 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $700,000 after acquiring an additional 1,136 shares during the period. AMG National Trust Bank lifted its stake in Ecolab by 16.0% during the 4th quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 37,617 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,822,000 after acquiring an additional 5,189 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab by 19.9% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 24,739 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,713,000 after acquiring an additional 4,107 shares during the period. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its stake in Ecolab by 16.0% during the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 79,855 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $18,712,000 after acquiring an additional 11,026 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on ECL. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $302.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $277.00 to $273.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Ecolab from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $283.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In related news, Director David Maclennan bought 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were bought at an average price of $251.75 per share, with a total value of $125,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,465 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,900,313.75. This represents a 2.64% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of ECL stock opened at $266.13 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $253.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $250.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $75.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.06, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.03. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $220.96 and a twelve month high of $273.69.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.50. The firm had revenue of $3.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.71 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.42% and a return on equity of 22.50%. The company’s revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.34 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be given a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 35.33%.

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.