WASHINGTON TRUST Co Lowers Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co trimmed its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 17.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,450 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $340,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the third quarter worth about $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 62.0% in the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the third quarter worth about $40,000. Abound Wealth Management raised its stake in Ecolab by 212.5% in the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $47,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total value of $17,216,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,176,511,348.95. This represents a 0.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 260,415 shares of company stock valued at $63,544,899 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on ECL shares. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. 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. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $257.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $284.33.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Ecolab stock opened at $264.99 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $242.98 and a 200-day moving average of $246.45. The firm has a market cap of $75.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $213.94 and a 1-year high of $268.00.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. Sell-side analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.64 EPS for the current 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 paid a $0.65 dividend. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

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.