Diversified Trust Co Purchases 123 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Diversified Trust Co grew its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,984 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,339,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 1,792 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $420,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Ecolab by 8.7% in 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 period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,557,000 after acquiring an additional 527 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in Ecolab by 36.3% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 578 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $135,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Ecolab by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 301,591 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $77,005,000 after purchasing an additional 16,747 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total value of $25,698,995.82. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 29,348,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,079,209,816.61. This trade represents a 0.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ECL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler reduced 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. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.27.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.2 %

ECL stock opened at $231.74 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $65.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30. The business’s 50-day moving average is $243.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $245.84. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $193.46 and a fifty-two week high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued 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. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.54 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.12%. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 36.47%.

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.