Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC Has $1.14 Million Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,866 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 171 shares during the period. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,140,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,181,802 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,317,811,000 after buying an additional 68,043 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 0.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,842,114 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $981,007,000 after buying an additional 35,027 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 8.7% in 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 buying an additional 129,635 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 0.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,403,088 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $358,250,000 after buying an additional 8,332 shares during the period. Finally, abrdn plc lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.2% in the third quarter. abrdn plc now owns 1,168,367 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $295,661,000 after buying an additional 13,654 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on ECL shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group lowered shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, November 4th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.60.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 83,873 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.96, for a total value of $20,629,403.08. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,534,868 shares in the company, valued at $7,264,396,133.28. This represents a 0.28 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 360,415 shares of company stock worth $88,350,899. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.8 %

Ecolab stock opened at $245.50 on Tuesday. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $201.99 and a twelve month high of $262.61. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $241.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $245.96. The company has a market capitalization of $69.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

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.