Barings LLC Has $4.99 Million Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Key Points

• Barings LLC reduced its stake in Ecolab Inc. by 21.5%, holding 19,667 shares valued at approximately $4.99 million after selling 5,396 shares in the first quarter.
• Analysts have upgraded Ecolab's stock rating with an average target price of $290.71, reflecting overall positive sentiment, as thirteen analysts gave it a buy rating.
• Ecolab announced a $0.65 quarterly dividend, yielding about 1.0%, and its current dividend payout ratio stands at 34.71%.

Barings LLC trimmed its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 21.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 19,667 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 5,396 shares during the period. Barings LLC's holdings in Ecolab were worth $4,986,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in Ecolab by 164.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,700 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $867,000 after purchasing an additional 2,302 shares during the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE grew its position in Ecolab by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 8,752 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,051,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Bryce Point Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the 4th quarter worth $501,000. World Investment Advisors grew its position in Ecolab by 34.7% in the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 17,361 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,068,000 after purchasing an additional 4,475 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wescott Financial Advisory Group LLC grew its position in Ecolab by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Wescott Financial Advisory Group LLC now owns 870 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $204,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird upgraded Ecolab from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their target price for the company from $273.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company set a $260.00 target price on Ecolab and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Oppenheimer upgraded Ecolab to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group upgraded Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Ecolab from $307.00 to $303.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $290.71.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.4%

ECL stock opened at $260.80 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $266.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $256.47. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $221.62 and a fifty-two week high of $274.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $73.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by ($0.01). Ecolab had a net margin of 13.59% and a return on equity of 22.52%. The business had revenue of $4.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 17th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 17th. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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.

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