B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management Purchases Shares of 11,249 Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 11,249 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,636,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 12.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 714,702 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $170,110,000 after acquiring an additional 78,721 shares in the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Ecolab by 22.3% during the second quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,190 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $759,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Ecolab by 2.4% during the second quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 34,079 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,111,000 after purchasing an additional 806 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 15.2% in the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 15,032 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,578,000 after acquiring an additional 1,986 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 8,164 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,943,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE ECL opened at $237.63 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $242.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $245.47. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $195.49 and a one year high of $262.61. The company has a market capitalization of $67.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 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 issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. Ecolab’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.09%. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.47%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group lowered Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 100,000 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.06, for a total value of $24,806,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,718,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,372,030,892.46. The trade was a 0.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

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.