Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC Acquires New Shares in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 936 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 32.7% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $602,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its stake in Ecolab by 15.9% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,589,000 after purchasing an additional 855 shares in the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its stake in Ecolab by 797.3% during the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,550,000 after purchasing an additional 15,834 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Ecolab by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $381,552,000 after purchasing an additional 129,635 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on ECL shares. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com lowered Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.47.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $242.62 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $68.70 billion, a PE ratio of 34.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.13. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $241.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $245.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $195.49 and a 12 month high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. Ecolab’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.07%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.47%.

Ecolab Company Profile

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