Cerity Partners LLC Purchases 86,641 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 60.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 229,434 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 86,641 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC owned approximately 0.08% of Ecolab worth $58,171,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 134.8% in the fourth quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 108 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Graney & King LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Dunhill Financial LLC increased its position in Ecolab by 176.7% in the first quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 119 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Accredited Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Ecolab from $302.00 to $285.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Ecolab from $307.00 to $303.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Redburn Atlantic lowered Ecolab from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $270.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $260.00 target price on Ecolab and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $287.00.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:ECL traded up $0.30 during trading on Friday, hitting $267.09. 966,348 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,180,551. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $220.96 and a 52 week high of $274.17. 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 company has a market cap of $75.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $263.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $253.10.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.50. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.53% and a net margin of 13.41%. The business had revenue of $3.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.34 EPS. Ecolab's revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David Maclennan bought 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $251.75 per share, for a total transaction of $125,875.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 19,465 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,900,313.75. The trade was a 2.64% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.04% of the company's stock.

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.