Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,406 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $359,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Triad Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the second quarter worth $27,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in Ecolab in the first quarter worth $31,000. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab during the second quarter valued at $33,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America raised Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $251.00 to $272.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.20.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $247.61 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $182.39 and a fifty-two week high of $262.61. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $252.33 and a 200 day moving average of $243.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.73, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.54 EPS. Ecolab’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,014,586.40. This represents a 32.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 478,355 shares of company stock worth $117,922,965 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.