Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC Sells 4,957 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC decreased its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 5.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 80,641 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 4,957 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $15,804,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Syon Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab during the third quarter valued at approximately $282,000. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter valued at $393,000. Ieq Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 23.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 7,495 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,418 shares in the last quarter. Lincoln National Corp grew its stake in Ecolab by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 2,606 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $441,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LGT Group Foundation increased its position in Ecolab by 81.2% during the 3rd quarter. LGT Group Foundation now owns 23,329 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,894,000 after buying an additional 10,457 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on ECL. Raymond James boosted their price target on Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $239.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Arthur J. Higgins sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.52, for a total value of $1,023,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 25,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,812,680.96. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Ecolab news, Director Arthur J. Higgins sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.52, for a total transaction of $1,023,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 25,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,812,680.96. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Maclennan purchased 650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were bought at an average price of $227.37 per share, with a total value of $147,790.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 17,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,890,528.07. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL stock traded up $1.18 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $234.31. 541,756 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,019,005. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $227.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $210.18. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $156.72 and a fifty-two week high of $236.00. The firm has a market cap of $66.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.74 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.01% and a return on equity of 20.56%. The company’s revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.59 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be issued a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.97%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.