Raymond James Financial Inc. Takes $61.07 Million Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 260,638 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $61,073,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 797.3% during the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,550,000 after purchasing an additional 15,834 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $381,552,000 after purchasing an additional 129,635 shares during the period. Corundum Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 47.9% during the fourth quarter. Corundum Group Inc. now owns 7,548 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,769,000 after purchasing an additional 2,444 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 7.9% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 37,867 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,669,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan bought 400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 18,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,964,059.17. This represents a 2.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 856 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.37, for a total value of $228,868.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,140 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,911.80. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 17,435 shares of company stock valued at $4,637,985. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Ecolab from $295.00 to $313.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Barclays increased their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Ecolab from $295.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Argus upgraded Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $288.00.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $265.54 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $250.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $249.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.98, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $217.05 and a one year high of $273.69.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.23%.

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.