Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA Decreases Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA lessened its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 21.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 59,277 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 16,098 shares during the quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA's holdings in Ecolab were worth $11,750,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. CWM LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 10,214 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,730,000 after buying an additional 823 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Ecolab by 18.4% in the third quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,843 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $990,000 after purchasing an additional 906 shares during the period. Moody National Bank Trust Division lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 2,409 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $408,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 19.3% in the 3rd quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,189 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $710,000 after purchasing an additional 678 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harbor Investment Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 89.7% during the 3rd quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 332 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $238.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Ecolab from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Bank of America raised Ecolab from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Ecolab from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Stock Performance

ECL stock traded up $1.15 on Monday, hitting $219.31. The company's stock had a trading volume of 853,098 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,219,429. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.72 and a 1 year high of $231.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market cap of $62.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $223.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $199.93.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last announced 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. The business had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.27 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

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

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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