White Pine Capital LLC Sells 744 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

White Pine Capital LLC trimmed its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 6.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,103 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 744 shares during the period. White Pine Capital LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,004,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in Ecolab by 117.9% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,669,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $282,185,000 after buying an additional 903,307 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 19,062.1% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 555,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $110,261,000 after buying an additional 552,992 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Ecolab by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,875,434,000 after buying an additional 387,545 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 62.1% in the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 984,504 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $166,775,000 after purchasing an additional 377,010 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 50.2% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 687,324 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $116,433,000 after purchasing an additional 229,776 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ECL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $220.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $238.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised 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. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:ECL traded up $1.31 during trading on Friday, hitting $221.10. 1,242,930 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,060,937. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.72 and a 1-year high of $231.86. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $223.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $200.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market cap of $63.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.16, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.27 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.03%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 47.60%.

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.