Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Has $729,000 Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 186.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,061 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,993 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $729,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth $365,420,000. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $390,687,000. Findlay Park Partners LLP acquired a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth approximately $91,178,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ecolab by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,182,456 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,598,240,000 after purchasing an additional 305,039 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Ecolab by 1,133.0% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 252,783 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $58,368,000 after buying an additional 232,282 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ECL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Ecolab from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Stifel Nicolaus raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $233.00 to $283.00 in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $243.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $251.00 to $272.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $260.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $250.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In related news, Director David Maclennan acquired 650 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $240.41 per share, with a total value of $156,266.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 17,967 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,319,446.47. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of ECL stock traded up $3.88 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $246.45. 662,242 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,149,882. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $240.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $230.67. The firm has a market cap of $70.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.50. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $156.72 and a fifty-two week high of $249.00.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.95% and a return on equity of 21.65%. The business had revenue of $3.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.24 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be paid a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 17th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.93%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.22%.

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.