Pittenger & Anderson Inc. Buys New Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. bought a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 15,870 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $3,148,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ECL. Riverwater Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 1,654 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $328,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC now owns 3,549 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $704,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Bluffs Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Bluffs Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,605 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $916,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. GS Investments Inc. increased its holdings in Ecolab by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. GS Investments Inc. now owns 16,041 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,717,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MCF Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 42.5% in the 4th quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 208 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ECL shares. Barclays raised Ecolab from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $225.00 to $260.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Ecolab from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $220.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group upped their price target on Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $238.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.4 %

NYSE:ECL traded down $0.96 on Thursday, hitting $219.82. The stock had a trading volume of 1,106,781 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,205,221. The business's fifty day moving average is $223.78 and its 200 day moving average is $200.56. The company has a market cap of $62.85 billion, a PE ratio of 45.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.10. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.72 and a 52 week high of $231.86.

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

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were paid a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. 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.