Royal Bank of Canada Lowers Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Price Target to $294.00

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) had its price target lowered by investment analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $306.00 to $294.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target points to a potential upside of 27.06% from the stock’s current price.

ECL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.47.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.4 %

Ecolab stock traded down $3.18 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $231.39. The stock had a trading volume of 380,897 shares, compared to its average volume of 926,234. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $243.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $245.68. The company has a market capitalization of $65.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.45, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab has a 12 month low of $195.49 and a 12 month high of $262.61.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 32.7% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $602,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,589,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 797.3% during the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,550,000 after acquiring an additional 15,834 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 37,867 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,669,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $381,552,000 after acquiring an additional 129,635 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

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.