Crewe Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Crewe Advisors LLC cut its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 62.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 180 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 297 shares during the period. Crewe Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $46,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,558,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $608,851,000 after buying an additional 122,715 shares during the period. Mirova US LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab by 2.3% in the second quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 1,975,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $470,149,000 after acquiring an additional 43,553 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Ecolab during the 1st quarter worth approximately $390,687,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 0.6% in the 3rd 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, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,372,379 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $326,626,000 after purchasing an additional 24,648 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on ECL. Bank of America upgraded shares of 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 research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group lowered Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $306.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.87.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. This represents a 32.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $98,250.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at $6,010,250. The trade was a 1.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 838,770 shares of company stock worth $206,273,864. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of ECL stock opened at $245.30 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $251.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $244.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.46 billion, a PE ratio of 34.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $186.00 and a 52-week high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

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.