Bridgewater Advisors Inc. Takes $254,000 Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Bridgewater Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,028 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $254,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 164.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,700 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $867,000 after buying an additional 2,302 shares during the period. Highview Capital Management LLC DE increased its stake 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 valued at $2,051,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the period. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV grew its stake in Ecolab by 134.8% during the 4th quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 108 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,550 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $597,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Ecolab by 34.1% during the fourth quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,287 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,410,000 after purchasing an additional 2,615 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ECL. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Ecolab from $277.00 to $273.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective 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. Redburn Atlantic cut Ecolab from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $270.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Mizuho upped their target price on Ecolab from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $288.33.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.5%

ECL opened at $269.08 on Friday. The company's 50-day moving average price is $264.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $253.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $76.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.56, a PEG 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.50. The business had revenue of $3.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.71 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.41% and a return on equity of 22.53%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.34 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th were 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 was Tuesday, June 17th. Ecolab's payout ratio is 35.33%.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan acquired 500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $251.75 per share, with a total value of $125,875.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 19,465 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,900,313.75. This trade represents a 2.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.

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