Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Plans $0.65 Quarterly Dividend

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.65 per share by the basic materials company on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.97%.

Ecolab has increased its dividend by an average of 6.6% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 33 years. Ecolab has a dividend payout ratio of 30.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Ecolab to earn $8.52 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.5%.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE ECL opened at $267.43 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.24, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.26. Ecolab has a one year low of $215.41 and a one year high of $268.00. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $244.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $247.34.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.42% and a return on equity of 22.50%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ecolab will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan bought 400 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,767 shares in the company, valued at $4,964,059.17. The trade was a 2.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Machiel Duijser sold 5,721 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.04, for a total value of $1,510,572.84. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $996,486.96. This trade represents a 60.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ECL shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $313.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $257.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $284.33.

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.