Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Stake Lowered by Great Diamond Partners LLC

Great Diamond Partners LLC trimmed its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 7.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,161 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 92 shares during the quarter. Great Diamond Partners LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $272,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after buying an additional 855 shares in the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,262,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position 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 valued at $381,552,000 after acquiring an additional 129,635 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its stake in Ecolab by 797.3% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,550,000 after acquiring an additional 15,834 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $249.97 on Friday. 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 company 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $241.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $245.73. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $195.49 and a fifty-two week 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, beating 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 business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 29,348,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,079,209,816.61. The trade was a 0.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 425,430 shares of company stock worth $104,201,556. Company 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.