Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Receives Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" by the seventeen brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $277.20.

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America raised Ecolab from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $251.00 to $272.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler raised 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.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In related news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value 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 trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,014,586.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 478,355 shares of company stock worth $117,922,965. 0.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 32.7% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $602,000 after buying an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 84.3% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,098,000 after purchasing an additional 6,137 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 50.9% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 19.1% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 21,198 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,895,000 after purchasing an additional 3,393 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of Ecolab stock traded down $2.14 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $244.71. 1,211,205 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,088,165. The firm has a market cap of $69.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Ecolab has a 52-week low of $172.79 and a 52-week high of $262.61. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $252.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $242.48.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Ecolab will post 6.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.