Abbrea Capital LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Abbrea Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 7,484 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 130 shares during the quarter. Abbrea Capital LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,785,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $365,420,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the first quarter valued at about $390,687,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,182,456 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,598,240,000 after purchasing an additional 305,039 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 136.0% during the 2nd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 359,106 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $85,467,000 after purchasing an additional 206,973 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Ecolab by 65.9% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 474,603 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $109,583,000 after buying an additional 188,455 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on ECL. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Ecolab from $288.00 to $276.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $243.00 to $267.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $260.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $254.67.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $250.67 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $71.32 billion, a PE ratio of 46.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.72 and a 52 week high of $253.54. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $243.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $234.72.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.95% and a return on equity of 21.65%. The company had revenue of $3.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.24 earnings per share. Ecolab’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be given a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.91%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 17th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,014,586.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,014,586.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director David Maclennan acquired 650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $240.41 per share, with a total value of $156,266.50. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 17,967 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,319,446.47. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Ecolab

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.