Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Declares $0.65 Quarterly Dividend

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be given a dividend of 0.65 per share by the basic materials company on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.97%.

Ecolab has increased its dividend by an average of 6.6% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 33 years. Ecolab has a payout ratio of 30.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Ecolab to earn $8.52 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.5%.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of ECL stock traded up $1.19 on Thursday, hitting $267.43. The stock had a trading volume of 936,189 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,241,839. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.14. Ecolab has a 1 year low of $215.41 and a 1 year high of $268.00. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $244.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $247.19.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. Analysts anticipate that Ecolab will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In related news, Director David Maclennan acquired 400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $264.51 per share, with a total value of $105,804.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 18,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,964,059.17. This represents a 2.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total value of $17,216,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,176,511,348.95. This trade represents a 0.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ECL. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $284.33.

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.