Blue Trust Inc. Increases Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 68.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,202 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,303 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $818,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,181,802 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,317,811,000 after buying an additional 68,043 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 0.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,842,114 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $981,007,000 after purchasing an additional 35,027 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $381,552,000 after purchasing an additional 129,635 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Ecolab by 0.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,403,088 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $358,250,000 after purchasing an additional 8,332 shares during the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc raised its holdings in Ecolab by 1.2% during the third quarter. abrdn plc now owns 1,168,367 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $295,661,000 after purchasing an additional 13,654 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 100,000 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.06, for a total transaction of $24,806,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 29,718,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,372,030,892.46. The trade was a 0.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders sold 425,430 shares of company stock worth $104,201,556. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on ECL shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, UBS Group cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.60.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.0 %

ECL opened at $247.05 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $195.49 and a 12 month high of $262.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $241.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $245.67.

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

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.05%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.

About Ecolab

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.