Brokerages Set Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Price Target at $244.06

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $249.13.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $267.00 to $265.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $243.00 to $267.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $227.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ecolab

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 1.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,486,858 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,423,116,000 after purchasing an additional 304,402 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,264,757 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $449,215,000 after purchasing an additional 91,547 shares in the last quarter. Mirova US LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 2.3% during the second quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 1,975,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $470,149,000 after purchasing an additional 43,553 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,855,130 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $367,965,000 after purchasing an additional 155,151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth approximately $365,420,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.3 %

ECL stock opened at $237.20 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. Ecolab has a 1 year low of $156.72 and a 1 year high of $249.00. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $239.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $227.30. The firm has a market cap of $67.74 billion, a PE ratio of 43.93, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.11.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.95% and a return on equity of 21.65%. The company had revenue of $3.99 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.24 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 17th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.96%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 42.22%.

About Ecolab

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.