Bridgewater Associates LP Sells 570 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Bridgewater Associates LP lowered its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,103 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 570 shares during the quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $282,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new position in Ecolab in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab in the second quarter worth $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group lowered Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $306.00 target price on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $279.87.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 30,776,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,599,313,132.56. This trade represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $98,250.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,010,250. The trade was a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 834,959 shares of company stock worth $205,323,667 in the last 90 days. 0.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $248.17 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $251.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $245.19. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $188.80 and a fifty-two week 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. The company has a market cap of $70.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.81, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.54 earnings per share. Ecolab’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

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.