Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Shares Bought by Blossom Wealth Management

Blossom Wealth Management increased its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,180 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Blossom Wealth Management’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $511,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 1,730 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $406,000 after buying an additional 166 shares during the period. Everett Harris & Co. CA boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Everett Harris & Co. CA now owns 74,714 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $17,507,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at about $564,000. Caprock Group LLC grew its position in Ecolab by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 7,951 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,868,000 after acquiring an additional 785 shares during the period. Finally, Boomfish Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in Ecolab by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Boomfish Wealth Group LLC now owns 5,961 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,397,000 after acquiring an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 25th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.06, for a total value of $24,806,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,718,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,372,030,892.46. This trade represents a 0.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 425,430 shares of company stock valued at $104,201,556 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $249.97 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $70.78 billion, a PE ratio of 35.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $241.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $245.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $195.49 and a 12-month high of $262.61.

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, 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 company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.54 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

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

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.