Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Shares Bought by State of Michigan Retirement System

State of Michigan Retirement System increased its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 0.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 69,640 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $16,574,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ECL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Ecolab by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,486,858 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,423,116,000 after purchasing an additional 304,402 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,264,757 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $449,215,000 after buying an additional 91,547 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,855,130 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $367,965,000 after buying an additional 155,151 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at $365,420,000. Finally, Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 1st quarter valued at $390,687,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the subject of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $227.00 to $234.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $250.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan purchased 650 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $240.41 per share, for a total transaction of $156,266.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,967 shares in the company, valued at $4,319,446.47. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE ECL opened at $247.07 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $70.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.75, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.11. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $240.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $231.87. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.72 and a twelve month high of $249.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.95% and a return on equity of 21.65%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.24 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be given a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 17th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.22%.

Ecolab Company 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.