HF Advisory Group LLC Has $658,000 Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

HF Advisory Group LLC decreased its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 22.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,318 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 980 shares during the quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $658,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Carnegie Capital Asset Management LLC increased its position in Ecolab by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Carnegie Capital Asset Management LLC now owns 111,563 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $22,129,000 after buying an additional 2,051 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 12.5% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 87,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $17,338,000 after acquiring an additional 9,695 shares during the last quarter. Prio Wealth Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 526.2% in the 4th quarter. Prio Wealth Limited Partnership now owns 56,959 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $11,298,000 after acquiring an additional 47,863 shares in the last quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,040,000. Finally, Vest Financial LLC boosted its position in Ecolab by 39.6% during the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 167,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $33,128,000 after purchasing an additional 47,351 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ECL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $184.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Barclays raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Bank of America raised Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Piper Sandler began coverage on Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $260.00 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.47.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Ecolab stock traded up $0.41 during trading on Thursday, hitting $219.66. 171,001 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,195,445. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $222.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $198.63. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.72 and a 1-year high of $231.86.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.27 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.04%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 47.60%.

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.