M&T Bank Corp Trims Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

M&T Bank Corp reduced its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 9.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 82,461 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 8,952 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $16,357,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Riverwater Partners LLC lifted its position in Ecolab by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 1,654 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $328,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC grew its position in Ecolab by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC now owns 3,549 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $704,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Bluffs Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Ecolab by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Bluffs Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,605 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $916,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 6,805 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,350,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GS Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. GS Investments Inc. now owns 16,041 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,717,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ECL shares. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Ecolab from $238.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Barclays raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Ecolab from $225.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $236.88.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.3 %

Ecolab stock traded up $0.74 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $227.50. The stock had a trading volume of 1,068,171 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,224,187. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $156.72 and a one year high of $231.86. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $224.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $202.96. The company has a market capitalization of $65.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.13, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.01% and a return on equity of 20.56%. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.74 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th 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 1.00%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 18th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 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.