Piper Jaffray Reiterates Overweight Ecolab Following Investor Meetings

In a report published Monday, Piper Jaffray analyst Mike J. Ritzenthaler reiterated an Overweight rating and $92.00 price target on Ecolab

. In the report, Ritzenthaler noted, “We recently hosted a round of investor meetings with Ecolab management. While nothing new was available regarding the Champion acquisition (management reiterated that they continue to work with the DOJ for a close in March), investor confidence in the deal remains high. Most of the questions pertained to the competitive positioning of the Global Energy Segment (10-15% of segment revenues are related to drilling activities, 45% to upstream asset integrity, and 40% to downstream/refining). Sales into Healthcare remain an important driver – and we believe the recent headlines about serious bacterial infections will lead to new opportunities for growth. We maintain our Overweight rating and $92 price target on shares of ECL.” Ecolab closed on Friday at $79.64.