Accredited Investors Inc. Buys 802 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Accredited Investors Inc. boosted its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 48.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,459 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 802 shares during the period. Accredited Investors Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $628,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,663 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $615,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 1st quarter valued at $223,000. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 1st quarter valued at $219,000. TIAA Trust National Association lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 21.0% during the first quarter. TIAA Trust National Association now owns 6,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,403,000 after acquiring an additional 1,056 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board acquired a new position in Ecolab in the first quarter valued at about $264,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $245.24 on Friday. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $252.35 and a 200-day moving average of $243.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.40, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $182.39 and a fifty-two week high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, November 4th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.20.

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.