Bond & Devick Financial Network Inc. Has $279,000 Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Bond & Devick Financial Network Inc. grew its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 12.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,406 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the period. Bond & Devick Financial Network Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $279,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Riverwater Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 1,654 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $328,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,490 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $278,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. First Foundation Advisors increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. First Foundation Advisors now owns 1,709 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $319,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. GS Investments Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. GS Investments Inc. now owns 16,041 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,717,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Personal CFO Solutions LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 1,875 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $318,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. 73.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on ECL shares. Bank of America upgraded Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Raymond James assumed coverage on Ecolab in a research report on Thursday, November 30th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $210.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Ecolab from $220.00 to $237.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $219.06.

Ecolab Price Performance

ECL traded up $1.99 during trading on Monday, hitting $228.12. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,191,501 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,251,349. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $210.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $191.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $154.49 and a 12 month high of $229.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $65.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 19.36% and a net margin of 8.96%. The firm had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.27 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th will be given a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.00%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 47.60%.

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.