Lee Danner & Bass Inc. Purchases New Shares in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Lee Danner & Bass Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 964 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $229,000.

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

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at $2,014,586.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director David Maclennan bought 650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The stock was bought at an average price of $240.41 per share, with a total value of $156,266.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 17,967 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,319,446.47. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at $2,014,586.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ECL. Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Ecolab from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group lowered their price target on Ecolab from $288.00 to $276.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $233.00 to $283.00 in a report on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $260.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $250.00.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE ECL opened at $253.18 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $72.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $241.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $232.44. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.72 and a 1 year high of $253.54.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $3.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.24 EPS. Ecolab’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 17th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

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.