Lbp Am Sa Purchases 88,250 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

LBP AM SA lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 308.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 116,885 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 88,250 shares during the quarter. LBP AM SA's holdings in Ecolab were worth $29,633,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV increased its holdings 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 worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Graney & King LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Dunhill Financial LLC boosted its position in Ecolab by 176.7% during the 1st quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 119 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. Navigoe LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Accredited Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth $33,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan purchased 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $251.75 per share, for a total transaction of $125,875.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly 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 purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ECL. Mizuho reduced their price target 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 dropped their price target on Ecolab from $307.00 to $303.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen raised Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. 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. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Ecolab from $285.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $287.00.

Ecolab Stock Performance

ECL traded up $0.30 on Friday, hitting $267.09. The company had a trading volume of 966,348 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,182,298. The company's fifty day moving average price is $263.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $253.18. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $220.96 and a 1-year high of $274.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The stock 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.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.50. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.53% and a net margin of 13.41%. The firm had revenue of $3.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.34 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.97%. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.33%.

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.