Brokerages Set Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Price Target at $244.06

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $249.13.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $233.00 to $283.00 in a research note on Monday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research note on Wednesday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, Director Arthur J. Higgins sold 4,500 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.52, for a total value of $1,023,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 25,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,812,680.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ecolab

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,486,858 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,423,116,000 after acquiring an additional 304,402 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,264,757 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $449,215,000 after acquiring an additional 91,547 shares during the period. Mirova US LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 2.3% during the second quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 1,975,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $470,149,000 after acquiring an additional 43,553 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,855,130 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $367,965,000 after acquiring an additional 155,151 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at $365,420,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Price Performance

ECL opened at $237.19 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $239.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $226.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.50. Ecolab has a 1 year low of $156.72 and a 1 year high of $249.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $67.73 billion, a PE ratio of 43.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.11.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.95% and a return on equity of 21.65%. Ecolab’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.24 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ecolab will post 6.61 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be issued a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

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.