Welch & Forbes LLC Buys 4,962 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Welch & Forbes LLC increased its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 467,365 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 4,962 shares during the quarter. Ecolab accounts for approximately 1.4% of Welch & Forbes LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Welch & Forbes LLC owned 0.16% of Ecolab worth $92,702,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 acquiring an additional 387,545 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 4.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,774,960 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $470,078,000 after buying an additional 123,572 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 1.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,555,758 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $432,945,000 after buying an additional 41,545 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 3.9% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,294,838 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $391,224,000 after buying an additional 85,985 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased 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 valued at $367,965,000 after buying an additional 155,151 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ECL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Wolfe Research began coverage on Ecolab in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Mizuho raised Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $216.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Barclays raised Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, UBS Group increased 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. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $236.88.

Ecolab Price Performance

ECL traded up $1.51 on Monday, hitting $229.01. 981,100 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,210,318. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $156.72 and a one year high of $231.86. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $224.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $203.99. The firm has a market cap of $65.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.09.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its 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 firm had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.74 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.88 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.58 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be issued a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 42.22%.

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.