Merit Financial Group LLC Purchases 1,280 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 99.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,563 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,280 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $601,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC now owns 3,022 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $708,000 after buying an additional 236 shares during the period. CNB Bank lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. CNB Bank now owns 2,652 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $621,000 after acquiring an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel grew its position in Ecolab by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 128,532 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $30,118,000 after acquiring an additional 4,971 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Ecolab by 42.1% in the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,684 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,738,000 after purchasing an additional 3,464 shares during the period. Finally, Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 20.8% during the fourth quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 8,130 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,905,000 after purchasing an additional 1,402 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ECL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group lowered Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, October 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.47.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.3 %

NYSE:ECL opened at $241.73 on Thursday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $68.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.13. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $241.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $245.65. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $195.49 and a fifty-two week high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.08%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total value of $15,850,657.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.