Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Price Target Raised to $300.00

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) had its target price lifted by Barclays from $260.00 to $300.00 in a research report report published on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

ECL has been the subject of several other reports. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $306.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Bank of America raised Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $279.87.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of ECL stock opened at $241.77 on Monday. Ecolab has a 1 year low of $184.95 and a 1 year high of $262.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30. The business’s fifty day moving average is $252.00 and its 200-day moving average is $244.19. The stock has a market cap of $68.46 billion, a PE ratio of 33.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Ecolab will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $98,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at $6,010,250. This trade represents a 1.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 83,873 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.96, for a total value of $20,629,403.08. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 29,534,868 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,264,396,133.28. This represents a 0.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 662,228 shares of company stock worth $163,358,368. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ecolab

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 32.7% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $602,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its position in Ecolab by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 84.3% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,098,000 after purchasing an additional 6,137 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 50.9% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,171,000 after purchasing an additional 1,660 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 19.1% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 21,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,895,000 after purchasing an additional 3,393 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.