Czech National Bank Raises Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 5.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 54,642 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 3,055 shares during the period. Czech National Bank’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $12,804,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. Coastline Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Ecolab in the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. Concord Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 62.0% during the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Hara Capital LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 2,188.9% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 206 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total value of $15,850,657.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. This trade represents a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ECL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective 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. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. Finally, UBS Group cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.47.

Ecolab Price Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $233.45 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $242.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $245.60. The firm has a market cap of $66.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.74, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $195.49 and a one year high of $262.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.54 earnings per share. Ecolab’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.11%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 36.47%.

Ecolab Company 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.