Wedgewood Partners Inc. continued to hold its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,722 shares of the basic materials company’s stock at the end of the first quarter. Wedgewood Partners Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $717,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Ecolab by 5.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,454,223 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,563,731,000 after buying an additional 1,044,370 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 2,154.8% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,032,404 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,884,161,000 after buying an additional 14,365,723 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 0.3% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,935,943 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,496,059,000 after buying an additional 31,277 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 19.3% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,555,051 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $445,590,000 after buying an additional 574,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, C WorldWide Group Holding A S boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 10.8% in the first quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S now owns 3,418,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $428,535,000 after buying an additional 333,261 shares in the last quarter. 75.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Ecolab Inc. (ECL) traded down 0.09% on Friday, reaching $130.11. 720,840 shares of the company traded hands. The firm has a market cap of $37.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.75 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $132.07 and a 200-day moving average price of $128.14. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $110.65 and a 52-week high of $134.89.
Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.40 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 9.66% and a return on equity of 18.93%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post $4.80 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 19th will be issued a $0.37 dividend. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.79%.
ECL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Canaccord Genuity reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a report on Monday, May 1st. J P Morgan Chase & Co upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $120.00 to $138.00 in a report on Friday, May 26th. Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc. reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $141.00 price objective (up from $133.00) on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, June 2nd. Zacks Investment Research cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.20.
In other Ecolab news, EVP Stephen M. Taylor sold 23,151 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.06, for a total value of $3,080,472.06. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 44,466 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,916,645.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III acquired 75,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 3rd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $132.57 per share, with a total value of $10,009,035.00. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 37,851 shares of company stock valued at $5,012,802 in the last three months. Insiders own 1.49% of the company’s stock.
About Ecolab
Ecolab Inc provides water, hygiene and energy technologies and services. The Company’s cleaning and sanitizing programs and products, pest elimination services and equipment maintenance and repair services support customers in the foodservice, food and beverage processing, hospitality, healthcare, government and education, retail, textile care and commercial facilities management sectors in over 170 countries.
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