S&CO Inc. Acquires 1,710 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

S&CO Inc. grew its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 0.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 232,222 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 1,710 shares during the quarter. Ecolab comprises approximately 3.9% of S&CO Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. S&CO Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $59,293,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ECL. Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Coastline Trust Co bought a new position in Ecolab in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the second quarter worth about $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:ECL opened at $245.24 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $69.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $182.39 and a twelve month high of $262.61. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $252.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $243.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.54 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, October 18th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.20.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the business’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 transaction, the insider now owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $98,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 24,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,010,250. The trade was a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 478,355 shares of company stock valued at $117,922,965. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.