UPDATE: Stifel Nicolaus Initiates Buy, $74 Target on Ecolab

Stifel Nicolaus initiates its coverage on Ecolab

with a Buy rating and a $74 target price on the company's quality and additional growth revenues. Stifel Nicolaus says, "Our target price represents a weighted average blend of the historical EV/EBITDA multiples of Ecolab and Nalco over the last five years applied to our 2012 and 2013 EBITDA estimates. Ecolab is a global chemicals company whose primary products are geared toward cleaning, sanitation, and the spectrum of water treatment services. We estimate that roughly 85% of the business is typically repeatable in a given year, and we view the business as a moderate revenue growth and margin expansion story, enhanced by much-greater-than-industry-average predictability." ECL closed at $60.38 a share on Monday.