Stonegate Investment Group LLC Purchases 206 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Stonegate Investment Group LLC increased its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,835 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 206 shares during the period. Stonegate Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,602,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake 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 valued at $188,578,000 after buying an additional 735,934 shares during the period. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth $80,564,000. Eastern Bank lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 750.9% during the 3rd quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 162,607 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $41,519,000 after buying an additional 143,497 shares during the period. KBC Group NV grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 64.6% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 330,475 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $84,380,000 after buying an additional 129,738 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $381,552,000 after buying an additional 129,635 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on ECL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.60.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE ECL opened at $246.02 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $241.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $245.64. The company has a market cap of $69.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.50, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $195.49 and a 12-month high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a $0.65 dividend. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other 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 value of $15,850,657.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.