First PREMIER Bank Has $2.41 Million Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

First PREMIER Bank lowered its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,270 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 225 shares during the period. First PREMIER Bank’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,406,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 581 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 855 shares during the period. PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its position in Ecolab by 797.3% during the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,550,000 after purchasing an additional 15,834 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in Ecolab by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $381,552,000 after buying an additional 129,635 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total transaction of $17,216,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,176,511,348.95. This trade represents a 0.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ECL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. UBS Group lowered Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.47.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $241.73 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $241.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $245.62. The stock has a market cap of $68.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.13. 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 quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its 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. The business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. Ecolab’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.54 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.08%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

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.