Boston Trust Walden Corp lowered its holdings in  Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL – Get Rating) by 7.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor  owned 19,639 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 1,544 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp's holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,836,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. United Bank grew its position in  Ecolab by 2.7% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 4,149 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $733,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares in the last quarter.  Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in  Ecolab by 7.1% in the first quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 6,703 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,183,000 after acquiring an additional 445 shares during the last quarter.  Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in  Ecolab by 104.8% in the first quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 29,854 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $5,271,000 after acquiring an additional 15,274 shares during the last quarter.  Citigroup Inc. lifted its stake in  Ecolab by 2.3% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 264,825 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $46,758,000 after acquiring an additional 6,038 shares during the last quarter.  Finally, Pitcairn Co. lifted its stake in  Ecolab by 8.1% in the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 3,339 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $590,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own  86.76% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on ECL shares. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Ecolab from $181.00 to $145.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 7th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Ecolab from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 13th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Ecolab from $169.00 to $143.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 3rd. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 12th. They set a "hold" rating for the company. Finally, Credit Suisse Group cut their target price on shares of Ecolab from $175.00 to $170.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 7th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock  has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $175.56.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $145.45 on Wednesday. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $131.04 and a twelve month high of $237.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $147.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $154.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.00.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 1st. The basic materials company reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.33 by ($0.03). Ecolab had a net margin of 8.13% and a return on equity of 18.10%. The firm had revenue of $3.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.68 billion.  Analysts forecast that  Ecolab Inc. will post 4.47 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 20th will be issued a $0.53 dividend. This is a positive change from Ecolab's previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 19th. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan bought 800 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 8th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $139.66 per share, with a total value of $111,728.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 12,597 shares in the company, valued at $1,759,297.02. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own  1.04% of the company's stock.

About Ecolab

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Ecolab Inc provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Global Industrial, Global Institutional & Specialty, and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences segments. 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.