Richwood Investment Advisors LLC Decreases Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Richwood Investment Advisors LLC decreased its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,083 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 40 shares during the quarter. Richwood Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $254,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Fox Run Management L.L.C. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 22.0% during the 4th quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. now owns 4,221 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $989,000 after acquiring an additional 760 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,009,000. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,860 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $670,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 50.2% during the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 886,653 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $207,758,000 after acquiring an additional 296,344 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 45.5% during the 4th quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 23,885 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,597,000 after acquiring an additional 7,464 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.5 %

ECL stock opened at $250.79 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $71.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.98, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $254.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $250.04. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.05 and a 52 week high of $273.69.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.23%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ECL shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Ecolab from $295.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Citigroup upped their target price on Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley raised Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $288.00.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In related news, EVP Machiel Duijser sold 5,721 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.04, for a total value of $1,510,572.84. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,774 shares in the company, valued at approximately $996,486.96. This represents a 60.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director David Maclennan acquired 400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $264.51 per share, with a total value of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,767 shares in the company, valued at $4,964,059.17. The trade was a 2.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 17,435 shares of company stock worth $4,637,985. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab 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.