Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas Takes Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 7,624 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,947,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 32.7% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $602,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its stake in Ecolab by 15.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,589,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 194,106 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $46,197,000 after purchasing an additional 9,731 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 37,867 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,669,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 14.2% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 33,886 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,652,000 after purchasing an additional 4,220 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $250.07 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $70.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.07, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $193.46 and a 1-year high of $262.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $250.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $245.83.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 posted $1.54 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.47%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total value of $25,698,995.82. Following the sale, the insider now owns 29,348,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,079,209,816.61. This represents a 0.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ECL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.87.

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.