Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Sells 1,918 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC trimmed its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 75,968 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,918 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $17,801,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth $219,000. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,586 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $840,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Albion Financial Group UT increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 5,877 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,377,000 after acquiring an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 1,030 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $241,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Finally, XML Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 2,378 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $557,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE ECL opened at $242.28 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $195.49 and a twelve month high of $262.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market cap of $68.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.98, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $241.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $245.60.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. Ecolab’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.54 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.07%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.47.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, 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 transaction 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 1.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 in the last quarter. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.