Sheets Smith Wealth Management Trims Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Sheets Smith Wealth Management lowered its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 0.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 46,328 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 65 shares during the quarter. Ecolab accounts for approximately 1.1% of Sheets Smith Wealth Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest holding. Sheets Smith Wealth Management’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $9,189,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Ecolab by 1.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,875,434,000 after acquiring an additional 387,545 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,774,960 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $470,078,000 after purchasing an additional 123,572 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,555,758 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $432,945,000 after buying an additional 41,545 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Ecolab by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,294,838 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $391,224,000 after buying an additional 85,985 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Ecolab by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,855,130 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $367,965,000 after buying an additional 155,151 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $232.00 to $243.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Ecolab in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Ecolab from $225.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group increased their target price on Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price target on Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $236.88.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of ECL traded up $0.74 on Friday, hitting $227.50. 1,068,171 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,224,187. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $224.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $203.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.41. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $156.72 and a one year high of $231.86. The company has a market capitalization of $65.04 billion, a PE ratio of 42.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.09.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 20.56% and a net margin of 10.01%. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.74 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.00%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

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.