Hexagon Capital Partners LLC Purchases 81 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Hexagon Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 150.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 135 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $27,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Savant Capital LLC lifted its position in Ecolab by 11.2% during the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 1,505 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $299,000 after buying an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Ecolab by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,555 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $705,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP grew its stake in Ecolab by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP now owns 5,314 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,054,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. now owns 4,890 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $970,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 9.1% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,855,130 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $367,965,000 after buying an additional 155,151 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on ECL. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $227.00 to $234.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $216.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Bank of America raised Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Ecolab from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given 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 $236.88.

Ecolab Price Performance

Ecolab stock opened at $227.49 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $65.04 billion, a PE ratio of 42.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $224.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $202.54. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $156.72 and a one year high of $231.86.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 20.56% and a net margin of 10.01%. The company had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.74 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. Ecolab’s revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

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

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.