Clarius Group LLC Has $315,000 Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Clarius Group LLC decreased its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 12.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,589 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 216 shares during the quarter. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $315,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC now owns 312,143 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $61,914,000 after purchasing an additional 5,588 shares during the period. First Personal Financial Services purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Beacon Financial Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the 4th quarter worth about $226,000. Braun Bostich & Associates Inc. lifted its stake in Ecolab by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Braun Bostich & Associates Inc. now owns 1,373 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $272,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kanawha Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Kanawha Capital Management LLC now owns 70,152 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $13,915,000 after acquiring an additional 2,045 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America raised Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Piper Sandler started coverage on Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $260.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group raised their price target on Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $221.69 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.30. The firm has a market cap of $63.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $221.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $197.78. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.72 and a 52 week high of $231.86.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 19.36% and a net margin of 8.96%. The company’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.27 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th will be issued a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.60%.

Ecolab 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.