Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC Grows Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC raised its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,145 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $971,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC raised its position in Ecolab by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC now owns 2,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $505,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Invesco LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Invesco LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $250,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC now owns 859 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $201,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the period. World Equity Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. World Equity Group Inc. now owns 1,217 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $285,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Ecolab by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,097 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $726,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan bought 400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,767 shares in the company, valued at $4,964,059.17. The trade was a 2.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 856 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.37, for a total value of $228,868.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,911.80. This trade represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 17,435 shares of company stock worth $4,637,985 over the last ninety days. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ECL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $288.00.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.5 %

Ecolab stock opened at $250.79 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.05 and a fifty-two week high of $273.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $254.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $250.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.26.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. Analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.04%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.23%.

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.