International Assets Investment Management LLC Has $110.26 Million Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 19,062.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 555,893 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 552,992 shares during the quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC owned 0.19% of Ecolab worth $110,261,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Ecolab by 58.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,510,224 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $802,069,000 after buying an additional 2,023,685 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at $276,712,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 65,845.5% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,835,923 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $267,237,000 after purchasing an additional 1,833,139 shares during the period. Capital International Investors purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab in the first quarter valued at $304,475,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 117.9% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,669,583 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $282,185,000 after purchasing an additional 903,307 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $220.00 to $237.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Barclays upgraded shares of Ecolab from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their target price for the company from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price target for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $226.76.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ECL traded up $3.17 on Friday, reaching $227.75. 1,410,422 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,157,055. The firm has a market capitalization of $65.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.55, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.10. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $156.72 and a fifty-two week high of $231.86. The business's 50-day moving average is $219.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $195.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th will be given a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.00%. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio is currently 47.60%.

Ecolab 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.