Mackenzie Financial Corp Sells 9,092 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Mackenzie Financial Corp lowered its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 8.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 92,589 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 9,092 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $18,365,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ECL. United Bank grew its stake in Ecolab by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 4,149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $733,000 after buying an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. increased its stake in Ecolab by 7.6% in the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 6,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,090,000 after acquiring an additional 434 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Ecolab by 23.0% during the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $334,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab by 6.7% during the first quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,707 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $301,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 17.1% in the 1st quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 73,182 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $12,920,000 after purchasing an additional 10,676 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays raised Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $225.00 to $260.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $184.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $193.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $185.00 to $216.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Eleven research 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.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $230.47.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $219.25 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $62.69 billion, a PE ratio of 45.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a 50 day moving average of $223.03 and a 200 day moving average of $198.77. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.72 and a 52 week high of $231.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

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

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.04%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.