Wealthspire Advisors LLC Purchases 494 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Wealthspire Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 8.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,291 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 494 shares during the period. Wealthspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,474,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Coastline Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the third quarter worth $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners raised its position in Ecolab by 62.0% during the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth about $39,000. Hara Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Abound Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 212.5% in the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ECL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Argus raised Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $287.00.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other news, EVP Machiel Duijser sold 5,721 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.04, for a total value of $1,510,572.84. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,774 shares in the company, valued at $996,486.96. This represents a 60.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director David Maclennan purchased 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,964,059.17. This represents a 2.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ecolab Stock Performance

ECL opened at $263.94 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $74.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.76, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $245.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $247.97. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.05 and a 1-year high of $268.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.42% and a return on equity of 22.50%. On average, analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.99%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.