Metis Global Partners LLC Sells 435 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Metis Global Partners LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 12,851 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 435 shares during the quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,549,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 28.3% during the third quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,460 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $247,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares during the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ecolab by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,900 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 62.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 101,681 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $16,834,000 after purchasing an additional 39,155 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 50,531 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,560,000 after purchasing an additional 2,066 shares during the period. Finally, NBT Bank N A NY boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 27.0% in the 3rd quarter. NBT Bank N A NY now owns 11,045 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,871,000 after purchasing an additional 2,346 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $238.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Barclays raised Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $236.88.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.1 %

ECL stock opened at $229.24 on Tuesday. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $156.72 and a fifty-two week high of $231.86. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $224.79 and a 200-day moving average of $203.99. The company has a market capitalization of $65.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.41, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.41.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.74 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.01% and a return on equity of 20.56%. The company’s revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be paid a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.99%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

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.