Burney Co. Purchases New Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Burney Co. acquired a new position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,005 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $232,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. First Personal Financial Services purchased a new position in Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Motco purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ecolab by 2,042.9% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on ECL shares. Citigroup raised Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $260.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America upgraded Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $251.00 to $272.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Ecolab from $243.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $249.13.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In related news, Director Arthur J. Higgins sold 4,500 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $5,812,680.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ecolab Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of ECL opened at $237.20 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $156.72 and a 12-month high of $249.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $239.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $227.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.24 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend 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 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.