Analysts Set Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) PT at $280.60

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $280.60.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ECL shares. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total value of $15,850,657.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 in the last three months. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ecolab

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 32.7% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $602,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,589,000 after purchasing an additional 855 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Ecolab by 7.9% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 37,867 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,669,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its position in Ecolab by 797.3% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,550,000 after buying an additional 15,834 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 14.2% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 33,886 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,652,000 after buying an additional 4,220 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $237.76 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $67.32 billion, a PE ratio of 33.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Ecolab has a twelve month low of $193.46 and a twelve month high of $262.61. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $247.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $246.30.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.

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.