UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp Increases Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 53.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,631 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 918 shares during the period. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $626,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.6% in the second quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc now owns 2,840 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $676,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 42.1% in the 2nd quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 152 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.1% in the first quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 4,290 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $990,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the period. TIAA Trust National Association raised its stake in Ecolab by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. TIAA Trust National Association now owns 6,122 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,457,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peak Asset Management LLC increased its position in Ecolab by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Peak Asset Management LLC now owns 12,221 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,424,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on ECL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Ecolab from $288.00 to $276.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $233.00 to $283.00 in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $260.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $254.67.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of ECL opened at $245.05 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $242.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $233.86. The company has a market cap of $69.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.72 and a twelve month high of $253.54.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.95% and a return on equity of 21.65%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.24 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.