Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Receives $280.60 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) have received an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the seventeen research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $280.60.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ECL. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com cut shares of Ecolab from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $306.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 30th.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total transaction of $101,023,861.12. Following the sale, the insider now owns 30,776,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,599,313,132.56. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 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 corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Coastline Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Kings Path Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the second quarter worth about $27,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. Concord Wealth Partners increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 62.0% during the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hara Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ecolab Stock Performance

ECL traded down $1.38 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $239.36. 521,430 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,093,636. The stock has a market cap of $67.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $247.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $246.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. Ecolab has a 12 month low of $193.46 and a 12 month high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last posted 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. The business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.54 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Ecolab will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.09%. This is a boost from Ecolab's previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio is currently 36.47%.

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.