15,870 Shares in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Bought by Pittenger & Anderson Inc.

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 15,870 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,148,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of ECL. Carnegie Capital Asset Management LLC raised its position in Ecolab by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Carnegie Capital Asset Management LLC now owns 111,563 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $22,129,000 after purchasing an additional 2,051 shares during the last quarter. Prio Wealth Limited Partnership raised its stake in Ecolab by 526.2% in the fourth quarter. Prio Wealth Limited Partnership now owns 56,959 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $11,298,000 after buying an additional 47,863 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 87,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $17,338,000 after buying an additional 9,695 shares during the period. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $35,040,000. Finally, Vest Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 39.6% during the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 167,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $33,128,000 after acquiring an additional 47,351 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the topic of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $238.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Mizuho raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $216.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Piper Sandler began coverage on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $260.00 target price for the company. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.47.

Ecolab Stock Performance

ECL stock traded down $0.99 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $219.79. 1,072,728 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,204,952. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. 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 $62.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.09, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.10. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $223.71 and its 200 day moving average is $200.43.

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

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were given a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.60%.

Ecolab Company 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.