First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Acquires 526 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 14.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 4,052 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 526 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $804,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 18.6% during the third quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 38,730 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,561,000 after buying an additional 6,078 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates increased its holdings in Ecolab by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 203,664 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,501,000 after acquiring an additional 11,448 shares during the period. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 4,695 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $795,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. Concord Wealth Partners boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 333.1% in the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 1,178 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $199,000 after purchasing an additional 906 shares during the period. Finally, Lindbrook Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 28.3% during the 3rd quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,460 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $247,000 after purchasing an additional 322 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Ecolab stock opened at $227.50 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $224.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $202.96. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.72 and a twelve month high of $231.86. The company has a market capitalization of $65.04 billion, a PE ratio of 42.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

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

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be issued a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 42.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Ecolab in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $225.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $238.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $227.00 to $234.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $236.88.

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.