Summit Trail Advisors LLC Buys 258 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Summit Trail Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 2,579 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the period. Summit Trail Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $660,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. NBC Securities Inc. increased its holdings in Ecolab by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,778 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $453,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 15,429 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,940,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,391 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $355,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Bangor Savings Bank increased its stake in Ecolab by 17.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 292 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc raised its holdings in Ecolab by 1.6% during the second quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc now owns 2,840 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $676,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on ECL shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $306.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.87.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total transaction of $25,698,995.82. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,348,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,079,209,816.61. The trade was a 0.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at $2,014,586.40. This represents a 32.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 838,770 shares of company stock worth $206,273,864. Insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Price Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $246.81 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $69.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.62, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $251.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $244.54. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $186.13 and a 1 year high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. Ecolab’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

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.