Archford Capital Strategies LLC Purchases 111 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Archford Capital Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 5,303 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 111 shares during the quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,243,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Ecolab Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $242.28 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $241.23 and a 200-day moving average of $245.60. The stock has a market cap of $68.60 billion, a PE ratio of 33.98, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $195.49 and a 52-week high of $262.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its 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. The company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. Ecolab’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.54 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current 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 paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 36.47%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 25th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.47.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total value of $17,216,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 29,178,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,176,511,348.95. The trade was a 0.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 over the last quarter. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.