Oakworth Capital Inc. Reduces Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Oakworth Capital Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 21.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 232 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 62 shares during the quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $46,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Ecolab by 58.0% during 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 period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth $276,712,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 65,845.5% during 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 period. Capital International Investors purchased a new position in Ecolab during the first quarter worth $304,475,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Ecolab by 117.9% during 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 period. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Barclays upgraded Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Raymond James lifted their target price on Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL stock opened at $219.25 on Thursday. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $156.72 and a fifty-two week high of $231.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.77, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.30. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $222.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $198.63.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 19.36% and a net margin of 8.96%. The business had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were given a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.04%. Ecolab’s dividend 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.