Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Stock Position Decreased by Great Diamond Partners LLC

Great Diamond Partners LLC lowered its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 7.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,161 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 92 shares during the period. Great Diamond Partners LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $272,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 32.7% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $602,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its stake in Ecolab by 15.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after buying an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at $1,262,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 129,635 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 797.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,550,000 after acquiring an additional 15,834 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Morgan Stanley raised Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 25th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.60.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.06, for a total transaction of $24,806,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,718,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,372,030,892.46. The trade was a 0.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 425,430 shares of company stock valued at $104,201,556 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.0 %

ECL stock opened at $249.97 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market cap of $70.78 billion, a PE ratio of 35.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $195.49 and a 12 month high of $262.61. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $241.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $245.73.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The company’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.04%. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.47%.

About Ecolab

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.