Geneos Wealth Management Inc. Boosts Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 19.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,696 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $632,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners raised its stake in Ecolab by 62.0% during the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Abound Wealth Management boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC increased its stake 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

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

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

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 available at this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 over the last three months. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ECL. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 25th. BMO Capital Markets raised Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays lifted their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. UBS Group downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective 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. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.60.

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.