Mutual Advisors LLC Takes $238,000 Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Mutual Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 997 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $238,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners raised its stake in Ecolab by 62.0% in the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Hara Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the third quarter worth $40,000. Abound Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 212.5% in the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 2,188.9% in the third quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 206 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ECL has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays raised their price objective 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. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 25th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.60.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Ecolab stock opened at $249.71 on Wednesday. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $195.49 and a 1-year high of $262.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. The company’s 50-day moving average is $241.23 and its 200 day moving average is $245.65.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 last year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.