Ballast Advisors LLC Sells 493 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Ballast Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 6.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,015 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 493 shares during the quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,791,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its position in Ecolab by 15.9% during the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 855 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 84.3% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,098,000 after buying an additional 6,137 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 50.9% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,171,000 after acquiring an additional 1,660 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 19.1% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 21,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,895,000 after purchasing an additional 3,393 shares during the period. Finally, Koshinski Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Ecolab in the first quarter valued at about $1,194,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total value of $101,023,861.12. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Ecolab news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at $2,014,586.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total value of $101,023,861.12. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares in the company, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 478,355 shares of company stock valued at $117,922,965. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of ECL stock opened at $248.00 on Wednesday. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $172.79 and a 12 month high of $262.61. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $252.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $242.48. The firm has a market cap of $70.57 billion, a PE ratio of 34.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.54 earnings per share. Ecolab’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ECL shares. UBS Group cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $306.00 target price on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.20.

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.