Flputnam Investment Management Co. Trims Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Flputnam Investment Management Co. lowered its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,248 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 251 shares during the period. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,239,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 58.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,510,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $802,069,000 after purchasing an additional 2,023,685 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at about $276,712,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 65,845.5% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,835,923 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $267,237,000 after purchasing an additional 1,833,139 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors bought a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 1st quarter valued at about $304,475,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 117.9% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,669,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $282,185,000 after purchasing an additional 903,307 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Ecolab stock opened at $220.35 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $222.38 and a 200-day moving average price of $198.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.30. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $156.72 and a fifty-two week high of $231.86. The company has a market capitalization of $63.00 billion, a PE ratio of 46.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The firm had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were paid a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.60%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on ECL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $220.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $216.00 to $260.00 in a report on Friday, April 12th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $230.47.

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.