Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC Acquires 28,642 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 74.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 67,310 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 28,642 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC's holdings in Ecolab were worth $17,064,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ECL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth about $521,399,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 27,182.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,813,175 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $459,676,000 after purchasing an additional 1,806,529 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 98.6% during the fourth quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC now owns 1,427,083 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $334,394,000 after purchasing an additional 708,432 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 79.6% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,260,813 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $319,641,000 after purchasing an additional 558,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 19.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,129,058 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $733,201,000 after purchasing an additional 514,944 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan acquired 500 shares of the business'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 transaction, the director directly owned 19,465 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,900,313.75. The trade was a 2.64% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company's stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE:ECL traded down $0.47 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $268.54. The company had a trading volume of 1,432,636 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,185,362. 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 52 week low of $220.96 and a 52 week high of $274.17. The firm has a market cap of $76.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.49, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.03. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $264.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $253.90.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.34 EPS. The firm's revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th were given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 17th. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.33%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on ECL shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $288.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price 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. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Ecolab from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $288.33.

Ecolab Company 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.