Apollon Wealth Management LLC Boosts Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Apollon Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 25.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,327 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 873 shares during the quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $858,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 903,307 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 19,062.1% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 555,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $110,261,000 after purchasing an additional 552,992 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Ecolab by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,875,434,000 after purchasing an additional 387,545 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its position in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 229,776 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ECL. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $216.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, April 12th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $227.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Barclays upgraded Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Ecolab from $232.00 to $243.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. 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 presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $236.88.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In related news, Director David Maclennan purchased 650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $227.37 per share, with a total value of $147,790.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 17,111 shares in the company, valued at $3,890,528.07. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, Director David Maclennan purchased 650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $227.37 per share, for a total transaction of $147,790.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 17,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,890,528.07. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Arthur J. Higgins sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.52, for a total transaction of $1,023,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 25,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,812,680.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $233.58 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $66.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.26, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.09. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $225.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $204.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $156.72 and a 12 month high of $234.68.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.01% and a return on equity of 20.56%. The company had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.74 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.88 earnings per share. Ecolab’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be given a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

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.