Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Stock Holdings Increased by Great Valley Advisor Group Inc.

Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 0.6% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 34,157 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 214 shares during the quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $8,721,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 32.7% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $602,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 84.3% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,098,000 after purchasing an additional 6,137 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 50.9% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,171,000 after purchasing an additional 1,660 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 19.1% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 21,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,895,000 after buying an additional 3,393 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the company’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 transaction of $950,196.63. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at $2,014,586.40. This represents a 32.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,010,250. This represents a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 838,770 shares of company stock valued at $206,273,864 in the last ninety days. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ECL shares. Citigroup raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $279.87.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL stock opened at $245.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $69.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.40, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $186.00 and a 12 month high of $262.61. 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 50-day moving average price of $251.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $244.29.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. Research analysts expect 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.