Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Sells 5,821 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. reduced its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 141,761 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 5,821 shares during the quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $33,739,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at about $749,000. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 84.3% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,098,000 after purchasing an additional 6,137 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 527.9% in the 4th quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 87,915 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $17,438,000 after purchasing an additional 73,913 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,128,977 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $223,933,000 after buying an additional 62,434 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 41.9% during the 4th quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 27,855 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,525,000 after buying an additional 8,220 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on ECL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Ecolab from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $288.00 to $276.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $233.00 to $283.00 in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $243.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $254.67.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE ECL opened at $250.79 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $71.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.72 and a 52 week high of $253.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.50. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $242.80 and a 200-day moving average of $234.51.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.24 earnings per share. Ecolab’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 17th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.91%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.22%.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The stock was 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 directly owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Ecolab news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the 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 sale, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director David Maclennan purchased 650 shares of the firm’s 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 acquisition, the director now directly owns 17,967 shares in the company, valued at $4,319,446.47. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.