Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Has $4.77 Million Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky decreased its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,675 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,032 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $4,774,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in ECL. First Personal Financial Services bought a new position in Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab by 150.0% in the 4th quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 135 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Motco bought a new position in Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in Ecolab in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab by 2,042.9% in the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $227.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Mizuho raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $216.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $260.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target 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. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $249.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Arthur J. Higgins sold 4,500 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.52, for a total transaction of $1,023,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,548 shares in the company, valued at $5,812,680.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE ECL traded down $3.04 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $237.20. 1,660,426 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,121,254. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.50 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The stock has a market cap of $67.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $239.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $226.90. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $156.72 and a one year high of $249.00.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.99 billion during 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.24 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 of this dividend is Tuesday, September 17th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 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.