Norris Perne & French LLP MI Cuts Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Norris Perne & French LLP MI decreased its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 0.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 139,553 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 467 shares during the period. Ecolab makes up about 2.1% of Norris Perne & French LLP MI’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Norris Perne & French LLP MI’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $27,680,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 58.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,510,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $802,069,000 after buying an additional 2,023,685 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth $276,712,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 65,845.5% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,835,923 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $267,237,000 after buying an additional 1,833,139 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the first quarter worth $304,475,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 117.9% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,669,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $282,185,000 after buying an additional 903,307 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $227.92 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $216.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $194.50. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.72 and a 52 week high of $231.86. The stock has a market cap of $65.16 billion, a PE ratio of 47.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The firm had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.27 earnings per share. Ecolab’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th will be given a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.60%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on ECL shares. Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $185.00 to $216.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $220.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Barclays raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $225.00 to $260.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $222.19.

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.