Schechter Investment Advisors LLC Has $365,000 Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Schechter Investment Advisors LLC cut its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 5.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,441 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 87 shares during the period. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $365,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at $521,399,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Ecolab by 27,182.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,813,175 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $459,676,000 after acquiring an additional 1,806,529 shares in the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Ecolab by 98.6% in the 4th quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC now owns 1,427,083 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $334,394,000 after acquiring an additional 708,432 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ecolab by 79.6% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,260,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $319,641,000 after acquiring an additional 558,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Ecolab by 19.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,129,058 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $733,201,000 after acquiring an additional 514,944 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on ECL. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Ecolab from $277.00 to $273.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $260.00 price target on Ecolab and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Redburn Atlantic cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $270.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, March 24th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Ecolab from $307.00 to $303.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on Ecolab from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $288.33.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL opened at $264.67 on Wednesday. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $220.96 and a 12-month high of $274.17. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $264.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $253.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $75.07 billion, a PE ratio of 35.96, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.03.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.53% and a net margin of 13.41%. The firm had revenue of $3.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.34 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 17th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 35.33%.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan purchased 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $251.75 per share, for a total transaction of $125,875.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 19,465 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,900,313.75. The trade was a 2.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

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.