Family Firm Inc. Purchases Shares of 458 Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 458 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $109,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at about $365,420,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 1st quarter worth $390,687,000. Findlay Park Partners LLP purchased a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth about $91,178,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,182,456 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,598,240,000 after acquiring an additional 305,039 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 1,133.0% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 252,783 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $58,368,000 after buying an additional 232,282 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David Maclennan bought 650 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $240.41 per share, for a total transaction of $156,266.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 17,967 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,319,446.47. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $243.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Ecolab from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $260.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on Ecolab from $288.00 to $276.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $250.00.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE ECL traded up $1.00 on Friday, hitting $247.23. 538,404 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,143,449. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.50 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.72 and a twelve month high of $249.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.11. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $240.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $231.14.

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

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be given a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.