First Hawaiian Bank Lowers Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

First Hawaiian Bank lessened its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 16.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,268 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 1,196 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank's holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,589,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $277.00 to $273.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays lowered their price target on Ecolab from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Argus raised Ecolab to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $283.13.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director David Maclennan purchased 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $251.75 per share, with a total value of $125,875.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 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 acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company's stock.

Ecolab Price Performance

NYSE ECL traded up $1.90 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $267.32. The company's stock had a trading volume of 294,267 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,168,087. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $75.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.22, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.03. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $248.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $248.91. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $220.96 and a 1 year high of $273.69.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last issued 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 firm had revenue of $3.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.71 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.34 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 17th. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.