Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC Makes New $246,000 Investment in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 1,050 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new position in Ecolab during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 62.0% during the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter worth about $40,000. Abound Wealth Management grew its holdings in Ecolab by 212.5% in the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC increased its position in Ecolab by 2,188.9% during the third quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 206 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 100,000 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.06, for a total value of $24,806,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,718,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,372,030,892.46. The trade was a 0.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders sold 425,430 shares of company stock valued at $104,201,556. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ECL. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.60.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.0 %

ECL stock opened at $247.05 on Thursday. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $195.49 and a 52-week high of $262.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a 50-day moving average of $241.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $245.67.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.54 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. 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 1.05%. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 36.47%.

Ecolab Company 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.