SVB Wealth LLC Has $3.11 Million Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

SVB Wealth LLC lowered its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 24.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 15,692 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 5,201 shares during the quarter. SVB Wealth LLC's holdings in Ecolab were worth $3,113,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 58.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,510,224 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $802,069,000 after purchasing an additional 2,023,685 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $276,712,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in 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 worth $267,237,000 after buying an additional 1,833,139 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors acquired a new position in Ecolab in the first quarter worth approximately $304,475,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 903,307 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho upgraded Ecolab from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $216.00 to $260.00 in a report on Friday, April 12th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Ecolab in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a "peer perform" rating on the stock. Raymond James increased their price objective on Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Barclays raised Ecolab from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE ECL remained flat at $219.25 during trading on Thursday. The company's stock had a trading volume of 924,421 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,206,019. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company has a market cap of $62.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $222.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $198.63. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $156.72 and a one year high of $231.86.

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

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.60%.

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.