Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Has $720,000 Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. lessened its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,858 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 250 shares during the quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $720,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Jade Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in Ecolab by 66.7% in the 2nd quarter. Jade Capital Advisors LLC now owns 25,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,667,000 after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 44.3% in the 2nd quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 9,046 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,689,000 after purchasing an additional 2,776 shares during the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,490 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $278,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at about $64,714,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 12.2% in the 2nd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,392,868 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $260,035,000 after purchasing an additional 151,325 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ECL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $208.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $213.00 target price on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Monday, October 9th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $165.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. Mizuho reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $194.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, September 15th. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Ecolab from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $194.64.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $184.98 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $52.75 billion, a PE ratio of 42.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.04. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $170.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.26. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.13 and a 52-week high of $191.41.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $1.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.99 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.18% and a return on equity of 18.81%. On average, analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 5.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Profile

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.