Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Shares Bought by Noesis Capital Mangement Corp

Noesis Capital Mangement Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 54,803 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 2,313 shares during the period. Ecolab accounts for approximately 2.5% of Noesis Capital Mangement Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Noesis Capital Mangement Corp’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $12,841,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 32.7% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $602,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew 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 valued at $1,589,000 after purchasing an additional 855 shares during the period. PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 15,834 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 129,635 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, EVP Larry L. Berger sold 10,858 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $266.95, for a total transaction of $2,898,543.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,744 shares in the company, valued at $4,202,860.80. This trade represents a 40.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director David Maclennan purchased 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were bought at an average price of $264.51 per share, with a total value of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,964,059.17. The trade was a 2.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 17,435 shares of company stock worth $4,637,985 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ECL. Argus upgraded shares of Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.00.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL stock opened at $268.64 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $247.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $248.64. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.05 and a 12 month high of $270.57. The company has a market capitalization of $76.07 billion, a PE ratio of 36.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.42% and a return on equity of 22.50%. Analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.23%.

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.