Ecolab Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.57 (NYSE:ECL)

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.57 per share by the basic materials company on Monday, July 15th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.01%.

Ecolab has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.6% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 32 years. Ecolab has a dividend payout ratio of 31.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Ecolab to earn $7.27 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.4%.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.8 %

ECL traded up $1.78 on Thursday, hitting $226.76. 1,175,880 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,214,836. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The company has a market cap of $64.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.08. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $224.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $202.37. Ecolab has a twelve month low of $156.72 and a twelve month high of $231.86.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.74 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 20.56% and a net margin of 10.01%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.88 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Ecolab will post 6.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ECL. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $238.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group upped their price objective on Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a "peer perform" rating on the stock. Piper Sandler began coverage on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. They set an "overweight" rating and a $260.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of Ecolab from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $216.00 to $260.00 in a report on Friday, April 12th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $233.65.

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.