A number of stock research firms have changed their ratings and price targets for Ecolab (NYSE: ECL) during the last seven days:

  • Ecolab was upgraded by analysts at Credit Suisse from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating. They now have a $76.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $68.00. They wrote, “We are upgrading ECL to Outperform (from Neutral) and raising our price target to $76 (from $68), offering investors 15% upside. While we were previously concerned about the volatility that NLC bought to ECL, with the business fundamentals now looking better than expected (especially raws) and the acquisition of Champion Technologies helping to fuel faster growth in the attractive Energy segment, we believe ECL should Outperform its peers/the market. Our $76 price target represents 11X pro-forma 2013E EBITDA (vs. the stock currently at 10X) we believe it is justified based on ECL s growth/return profile and it s still below ECL s legacy multiple of 11.5-12X.”
  • Ecolab was downgraded by analysts at Credit Suisse from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating.
  • Ecolab had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Deutsche Bank. They now have a $76.00 price target on the stock.
  • Ecolab was downgraded by analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating.
  • Ecolab had its “overweight” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Piper Jaffray. They now have a $80.00 price target on the stock.

Ecolab Inc. opened at 69.39 on Thursday. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $52.21 and a 1-year high of $70.75. The company has a market cap of $20.297 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.40.

Ecolab Inc. (Ecolab) develops and markets products and services for the hospitality, foodservice, healthcare and industrial markets.