Pure Financial Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 982 Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Pure Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 982 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $249,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ECL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth about $521,399,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,806,529 shares in the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 98.6% during the 4th quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC now owns 1,427,083 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $334,394,000 after acquiring an additional 708,432 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 19.7% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,129,058 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $733,201,000 after acquiring an additional 514,944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raiffeisen Bank International AG purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth about $79,980,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company set a $260.00 target price on shares of Ecolab and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Ecolab from $302.00 to $285.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $275.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Ecolab from $277.00 to $273.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Ecolab from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $270.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $283.13.

Ecolab Stock Up 1.6%

ECL stock opened at $267.55 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $75.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.35, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $220.96 and a 12 month high of $273.69. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $258.03 and a two-hundred day moving average of $251.19.

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

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company 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 is currently 35.33%.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan purchased 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $251.75 per share, for a total transaction of $125,875.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 19,465 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,900,313.75. This represents a 2.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.04% of the company's stock.

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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