Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI Has $2.55 Million Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI raised its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 296.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 12,839 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 9,600 shares during the period. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,547,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Fortitude Family Office LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in Ecolab in the third quarter worth $25,000. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. purchased a new position in Ecolab in the third quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Robbins Farley purchased a new stake in Ecolab during the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ECL. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $238.00 target price on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $193.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $222.19.

Ecolab Price Performance

NYSE ECL traded up $0.38 on Tuesday, reaching $228.31. The company had a trading volume of 118,903 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,209,411. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $65.28 billion, a PE ratio of 47.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $216.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $194.50. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $156.72 and a 12 month high of $231.86.

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

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th will be given a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 47.60%.

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.