Bank of Montreal Can Acquires 58,545 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 17.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 394,756 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 58,545 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can owned about 0.14% of Ecolab worth $96,640,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at $749,000. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 84.3% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,098,000 after acquiring an additional 6,137 shares during the period. Cibc World Markets Corp increased its position in Ecolab by 527.9% during the fourth quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 87,915 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $17,438,000 after acquiring an additional 73,913 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its stake in Ecolab by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,128,977 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $223,933,000 after purchasing an additional 62,434 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 50.9% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,171,000 after purchasing an additional 1,660 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ECL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $251.00 to $272.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Ecolab from $243.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $233.00 to $283.00 in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $262.21.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE ECL opened at $254.26 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $72.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.72 and a twelve month high of $255.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. The business’s fifty day moving average is $244.78 and its 200 day moving average is $236.45.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 21.65% and a net margin of 10.95%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.24 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 17th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In related news, Director David Maclennan bought 650 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $240.41 per share, with a total value of $156,266.50. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,967 shares in the company, valued at $4,319,446.47. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $98,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at $6,010,250. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Maclennan bought 650 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $240.41 per share, with a total value of $156,266.50. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 17,967 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,319,446.47. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.