FFT Wealth Management LLC Makes New $246,000 Investment in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

FFT Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 1,239 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 903,307 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 19,062.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 555,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $110,261,000 after purchasing an additional 552,992 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,875,434,000 after purchasing an additional 387,545 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 62.1% in the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 984,504 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $166,775,000 after purchasing an additional 377,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 50.2% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 687,324 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $116,433,000 after purchasing an additional 229,776 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $227.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Barclays upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $225.00 to $260.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.65.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ECL traded up $1.01 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $225.99. 138,288 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,202,173. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $64.61 billion, a PE ratio of 41.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.08. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $156.72 and a one year high of $231.86. The company’s 50 day moving average is $224.37 and its 200 day moving average is $202.37.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.74 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 20.56% and a net margin of 10.01%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

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 $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 1.01%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

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.