Vontobel Holding Ltd. Purchases 516,970 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 206.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 767,108 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 516,970 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. owned about 0.27% of Ecolab worth $179,749,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ECL. Geode Capital Management LLC grew 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 worth $1,317,811,000 after purchasing an additional 68,043 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 0.9% in the 3rd 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 worth $981,007,000 after purchasing an additional 35,027 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 8.7% in the 4th 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. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Ecolab by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,403,088 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $358,250,000 after buying an additional 8,332 shares during the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc increased its position in Ecolab by 1.2% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ECL. Barclays boosted their price target on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $284.33.

Ecolab Trading Up 1.4 %

ECL opened at $265.74 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $242.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $246.20. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $213.94 and a 1-year high of $267.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. Analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.47%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total value of $25,698,995.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,348,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,079,209,816.61. This represents a 0.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold 260,415 shares of company stock valued at $63,544,899 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.