Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Price Target Raised to $225.00

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) had its price target upped by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $220.00 to $225.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on ECL. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Mizuho raised Ecolab from a neutral rating to a buy rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $216.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, April 12th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Raymond James lifted their target price on Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn lowered Ecolab from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $236.88.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $227.50 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $65.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.13, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.09. Ecolab has a twelve month low of $156.72 and a twelve month high of $231.86. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $224.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $202.96.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.74 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 20.56% and a net margin of 10.01%. The company’s revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.88 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ecolab will post 6.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

Institutional Trading of Ecolab

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at about $365,420,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 117.9% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,669,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $282,185,000 after buying an additional 903,307 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 19,062.1% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 555,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $110,261,000 after acquiring an additional 552,992 shares in the last quarter. Findlay Park Partners LLP purchased a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $91,178,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ecolab by 1.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,875,434,000 after acquiring an additional 387,545 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.