Royal Bank of Canada Lowers Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Price Target to $294.00

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) had its price objective reduced by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $306.00 to $294.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an "outperform" rating on the basic materials company's stock. Royal Bank of Canada's price target would suggest a potential upside of 27.85% from the stock's current price.

ECL has been the topic of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group cut Ecolab from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ecolab from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 25th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $277.47.

Ecolab Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of ECL stock traded down $4.62 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $229.95. The company had a trading volume of 1,254,259 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,080,177. The stock has a market capitalization of $65.11 billion, a PE ratio of 32.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13. 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 fifty-two week low of $195.49 and a fifty-two week high of $262.61. The company's fifty day moving average is $243.29 and its 200 day moving average is $245.68.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Ecolab will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab 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 transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 in the last 90 days. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Ecolab during the second quarter worth $33,000. Concord Wealth Partners grew its holdings in Ecolab by 62.0% during the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab in the third quarter worth $40,000. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 2,188.9% in the third quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 206 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company's stock.

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.