Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 7.0% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,267 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 245 shares during the quarter. Cahill Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $777,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ECL. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc grew its holdings in Ecolab by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc now owns 2,840 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $676,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 42.1% in the second quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 152 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 1.1% in the first quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 4,290 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $990,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. TIAA Trust National Association raised its stake in Ecolab by 0.8% in the second quarter. TIAA Trust National Association now owns 6,122 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,457,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Advisor OS LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Advisor OS LLC now owns 4,023 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $957,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In related news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,014,586.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Maclennan bought 650 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $240.41 per share, for a total transaction of $156,266.50. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 17,967 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,319,446.47. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ecolab Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $249.19 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $242.50 and a two-hundred day moving average of $234.31. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $156.72 and a 12-month high of $253.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market cap of $71.16 billion, a PE ratio of 46.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $3.99 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.24 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be paid a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 17th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.91%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on ECL. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $260.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $254.67.

Ecolab Company 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.