Moors & Cabot Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Key Points

• Moors & Cabot Inc. reduced its stake in Ecolab Inc. by 54.4%, owning 1,351 shares valued at approximately $342,000 after selling 1,612 shares in the first quarter.
• Institutional investors showed increased interest, with GAMMA Investing LLC boosting its holdings by an astonishing 27,182.2%, bringing their total to approximately $459.7 million.
• Ecolab recently missed earnings expectations, reporting $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, slightly below the consensus of $1.90, while maintaining a robust revenue of $4.03 billion.

Moors & Cabot Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 54.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,351 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 1,612 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc.'s holdings in Ecolab were worth $342,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Ecolab by 27,182.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,813,175 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $459,676,000 after purchasing an additional 1,806,529 shares during the period. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its position in Ecolab by 27,677.8% in the 1st quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 1,000,000 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $253,520,000 after buying an additional 996,400 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Ecolab by 98.6% in the 4th quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC now owns 1,427,083 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $334,394,000 after buying an additional 708,432 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Ecolab by 79.6% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,260,813 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $319,641,000 after buying an additional 558,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position 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 valued at $733,201,000 after buying an additional 514,944 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Ecolab from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $273.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Baird R W raised shares of Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $260.00 target price on shares of Ecolab and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Ecolab to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $290.71.

Insider Activity

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan bought 500 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was purchased 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 owned 19,465 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,900,313.75. This represents a 2.64% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $264.06 on Tuesday. The firm's 50 day moving average is $266.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $256.92. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $221.62 and a 52 week high of $274.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.26, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80.

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

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.71%.

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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