AE Wealth Management LLC Decreases Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

AE Wealth Management LLC lowered its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 59.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,191 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 4,766 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Ecolab were worth $809,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. Forum Financial Management LP boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 2.8% in the first quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 1,449 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $367,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 2,980 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $755,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 5.0% in the first quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC now owns 902 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $229,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.8% in the first quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,774 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $703,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TFC Financial Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 20.2% in the first quarter. TFC Financial Management Inc. now owns 298 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $76,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ECL. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $277.00 to $273.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $307.00 to $303.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Ecolab from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $288.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $288.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Maclennan purchased 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $251.75 per share, with a total value of $125,875.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 19,465 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,900,313.75. This represents a 2.64% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ecolab Stock Down 3.8%

Shares of ECL traded down $10.25 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $259.74. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,264,825 shares, compared to its average volume of 997,161. The company's 50-day moving average is $266.73 and its 200-day moving average is $256.02. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $220.96 and a 52-week high of $274.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $73.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.29, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by ($0.01). Ecolab had a net margin of 13.41% and a return on equity of 22.53%. The firm had revenue of $4.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.03 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 17th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.00%. Ecolab's payout ratio is 35.33%.

Ecolab 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.