Davidson Trust Co. Has $377,000 Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Davidson Trust Co. lessened its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,903 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 61 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $377,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. Riverwater Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 1,654 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $328,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC now owns 3,549 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $704,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Bluffs Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Bluffs Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,605 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $916,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. GS Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. GS Investments Inc. now owns 16,041 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,717,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Personal CFO Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 1,875 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $318,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on ECL. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $200.00 to $220.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Ecolab from $193.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $238.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $230.47.

Ecolab Price Performance

ECL stock traded down $1.27 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $217.94. The company had a trading volume of 326,477 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,194,136. The company has a market capitalization of $62.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $223.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $198.77. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.72 and a 1-year high of $231.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 19.36% and a net margin of 8.96%. Ecolab’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.27 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders 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 1.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.