Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Shares Sold by Dakota Wealth Management

Dakota Wealth Management trimmed its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 11.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,607 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 606 shares during the period. Dakota Wealth Management’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,080,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 27,950.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 738,567 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $188,578,000 after acquiring an additional 735,934 shares during the period. Eastern Bank increased its holdings in Ecolab by 750.9% in the 3rd quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 162,607 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $41,519,000 after purchasing an additional 143,497 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its position in Ecolab by 64.6% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 330,475 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $84,380,000 after purchasing an additional 129,738 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted 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 purchasing an additional 129,635 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 5.0% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,558,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $608,851,000 after buying an additional 122,715 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on ECL. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE:ECL opened at $242.28 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $195.49 and a 1 year high of $262.61. The stock has a market cap of $68.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $241.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $245.60.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.07%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 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.