Forsta AP Fonden Buys 400 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Forsta AP Fonden grew its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 0.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 90,800 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $21,276,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in Ecolab by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 484,866 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $113,614,000 after acquiring an additional 13,148 shares during the period. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at $795,000. Stonegate Investment Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC now owns 6,835 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,602,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares during the period. Perigon Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,356,000 after buying an additional 416 shares during the period. Finally, YHB Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Ecolab by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 75,781 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $17,757,000 after buying an additional 414 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays raised their price target on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.60.

Ecolab Trading Up 1.4 %

NYSE ECL opened at $249.71 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $70.71 billion, a PE ratio of 35.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $195.49 and a 1-year high of $262.61. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $241.34 and a 200-day moving average of $245.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 $7,408,775,055.80. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.