Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS Raises Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lifted its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 42,712 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,558 shares during the period. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $10,165,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC bought a new position in Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth $749,000. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its position in Ecolab by 84.3% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,098,000 after acquiring an additional 6,137 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 29.8% during the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 1,863 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $370,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp grew its holdings in Ecolab by 527.9% in the fourth quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 87,915 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $17,438,000 after purchasing an additional 73,913 shares during the period. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,128,977 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $223,933,000 after purchasing an additional 62,434 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Price Performance

NYSE ECL opened at $246.75 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.69, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.72 and a 1-year high of $253.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.50 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $242.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $233.65.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.99 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 21.65% and a net margin of 10.95%. Ecolab’s revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.24 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be given a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 17th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.92%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.22%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ECL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $260.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $233.00 to $283.00 in a report on Monday, July 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $254.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Ecolab news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,014,586.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director David Maclennan acquired 650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $240.41 per share, for a total transaction of $156,266.50. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 17,967 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,319,446.47. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.