First Interstate Bank Sells 169 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

First Interstate Bank lowered its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 6.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,362 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 169 shares during the quarter. First Interstate Bank’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $469,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ECL. United Bank lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 4,149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $733,000 after buying an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 7.6% in the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 6,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,090,000 after purchasing an additional 434 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 23.0% in the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $334,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,707 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $301,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the period. Finally, Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 17.1% in the 1st quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 73,182 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $12,920,000 after purchasing an additional 10,676 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on ECL shares. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $193.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $238.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.47.

Ecolab Price Performance

NYSE:ECL traded up $1.31 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $220.35. The company had a trading volume of 1,733,415 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,213,440. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $156.72 and a 52-week high of $231.86. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $221.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $198.13. The company has a market capitalization of $63.00 billion, a PE ratio of 45.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.10. 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 (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.27 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were paid a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.60%.

Ecolab 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.