Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI Sells 2,390 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI lessened its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 9.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,770 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 2,390 shares during the period. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI's holdings in Ecolab were worth $5,773,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ECL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,149,744 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $5,658,768,000 after buying an additional 105,289 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Ecolab by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,273,277 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,231,873,000 after acquiring an additional 91,475 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its stake in Ecolab by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 3,995,817 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $936,300,000 after acquiring an additional 304,478 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in Ecolab by 6.0% during the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 3,549,610 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $831,744,000 after purchasing an additional 200,612 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 19.7% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,129,058 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $733,201,000 after acquiring an additional 514,944 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan acquired 500 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $251.75 per share, with a total value of $125,875.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 19,465 shares in the company, valued at $4,900,313.75. This represents a 2.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ECL shares. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Ecolab from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of Ecolab from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $270.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $288.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ecolab has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $287.00.

Ecolab Stock Performance

ECL stock traded up $0.30 during trading on Friday, reaching $267.09. 966,348 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,179,774. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $263.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $252.92. The company has a market capitalization of $75.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.03. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $220.96 and a twelve month high of $274.17.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $1.50. The company had revenue of $3.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.71 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.53% and a net margin of 13.41%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.34 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 17th. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio is 35.33%.

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.