Oak Ridge Investments LLC Acquires 2,962 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Oak Ridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 6.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 51,597 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 2,962 shares during the quarter. Ecolab comprises 1.1% of Oak Ridge Investments LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Oak Ridge Investments LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $13,081,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 27,182.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,813,175 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $459,676,000 after purchasing an additional 1,806,529 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the first quarter valued at approximately $337,563,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 27,677.8% during the first quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 1,000,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $253,520,000 after purchasing an additional 996,400 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 79.6% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,260,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $319,641,000 after acquiring an additional 558,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 19.7% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,129,058 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $733,201,000 after acquiring an additional 514,944 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on ECL shares. Robert W. Baird raised Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $273.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Ecolab from $307.00 to $303.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $260.00 target price on Ecolab and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Barclays decreased their price target on Ecolab from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $290.71.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $281.90 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $267.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $258.23. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $221.62 and a 52-week high of $281.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $79.95 billion, a PE ratio of 37.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.06.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by ($0.01). Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.52% and a net margin of 13.59%. The business had revenue of $4.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 16th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.71%.

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.