Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. Purchases 352 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. raised its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 16,877 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 352 shares during the quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $3,354,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. First Personal Financial Services bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Robbins Farley bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Fortitude Family Office LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Operose Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter worth $36,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Price Performance

ECL stock opened at $221.10 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $223.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $201.16. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $156.72 and a 12-month high of $231.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $63.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.16, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10. 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 (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.27 earnings per share. 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 6.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 1.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.60%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ECL. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $193.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.47.

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.