Sigma Planning Corp Sells 4,191 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Sigma Planning Corp trimmed its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 57.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,065 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 4,191 shares during the quarter. Sigma Planning Corp’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $608,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its position in Ecolab by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 27,743 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,503,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 149,949 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,742,000 after purchasing an additional 7,236 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 4,300 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $853,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. abrdn plc lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 12.4% during the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 1,001,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $198,599,000 after purchasing an additional 110,835 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $261,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $193.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $185.00 to $216.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of ECL stock opened at $220.78 on Thursday. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.72 and a 1 year high of $231.86. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $223.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $200.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company has a market cap of $63.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.09, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. 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 the consensus estimate of $3.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.27 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were given a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s payout ratio 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.