Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Shares Sold by Proficio Capital Partners LLC

Proficio Capital Partners LLC lessened its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 99.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 924 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 166,384 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC's holdings in Ecolab were worth $234,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Ecolab by 1.8% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 2.3% in the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,089,226 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,036,485,000 after purchasing an additional 93,409 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 6.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 200,612 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 514,944 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,993,504 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $701,438,000 after acquiring an additional 165,949 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on ECL. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Ecolab from $307.00 to $303.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $260.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $288.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price 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. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $288.33.

Insider Activity

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan bought 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director directly owned 19,465 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,900,313.75. This trade represents a 2.64% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.8%

NYSE ECL traded up $2.10 on Friday, hitting $271.93. The stock had a trading volume of 972,465 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,322,482. The business's fifty day moving average price is $266.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $255.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $220.96 and a 52-week high of $274.17. The stock has a market cap of $77.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.03.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.50. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.41% and a return on equity of 22.53%. The business had revenue of $3.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.34 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research 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 dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.96%. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.