Brokerages Set Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Target Price at $279.87

Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $279.87.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on ECL shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 target price on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, November 4th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $98,250.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,010,250. The trade was a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total value of $15,850,657.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 834,959 shares of company stock valued at $205,323,667 over the last 90 days. 0.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Coastline Trust Co acquired a new position in Ecolab during the third quarter worth $26,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the first quarter worth approximately $31,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $248.17 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $70.27 billion, a PE ratio of 34.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Ecolab has a 12-month low of $188.80 and a 12-month high of $262.61. The business has a 50 day moving average of $251.17 and a 200-day moving average of $245.19.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. Ecolab’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

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.