Blair William & Co. IL Has $197.77 Million Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Blair William & Co. IL trimmed its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 844,034 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 24,725 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL owned about 0.30% of Ecolab worth $197,774,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 134.8% during the fourth quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 108 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the period. Graney & King LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Midwest Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan acquired 400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,767 shares in the company, valued at $4,964,059.17. This represents a 2.18 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Machiel Duijser sold 5,721 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.04, for a total transaction of $1,510,572.84. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $996,486.96. This represents a 60.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 17,435 shares of company stock worth $4,637,985 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on ECL. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Ecolab from $295.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $286.88.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.4 %

ECL opened at $252.27 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.05 and a fifty-two week high of $273.69. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $255.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $250.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.18, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. As a group, research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.23%.

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.