LaFleur & Godfrey LLC Sells 985 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

LaFleur & Godfrey LLC reduced its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 76,556 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 985 shares during the quarter. Ecolab makes up approximately 2.5% of LaFleur & Godfrey LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $17,939,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 27,950.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 738,567 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $188,578,000 after purchasing an additional 735,934 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 295.2% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 791,246 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $188,317,000 after buying an additional 591,040 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in Ecolab by 580.7% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 303,565 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $72,248,000 after buying an additional 258,971 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank raised its holdings in Ecolab by 750.9% during the third quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 162,607 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $41,519,000 after acquiring an additional 143,497 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its holdings in Ecolab by 64.6% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 330,475 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $84,380,000 after acquiring an additional 129,738 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 25th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.47.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total transaction of $17,216,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,176,511,348.95. This trade represents a 0.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of ECL opened at $237.63 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $241.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $245.55. The company has a market cap of $67.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13. 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 Inc. has a twelve month low of $195.49 and a twelve month high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.65 dividend. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.09%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.