Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI Makes New $282,000 Investment in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI bought a new position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,423 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $282,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 117.9% in 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. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 19,062.1% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 555,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $110,261,000 after purchasing an additional 552,992 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,875,434,000 after purchasing an additional 387,545 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 62.1% in the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 984,504 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $166,775,000 after purchasing an additional 377,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 50.2% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 687,324 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $116,433,000 after purchasing an additional 229,776 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.5 %

ECL stock opened at $219.31 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $62.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.10. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.72 and a 52 week high of $231.86. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $223.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $199.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.27 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.47.

About Ecolab

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.