OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd Purchases 4,163 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd lifted its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 145,042 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,163 shares during the period. Ecolab accounts for about 1.0% of OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest position. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd owned approximately 0.05% of Ecolab worth $33,986,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 134.8% during the 4th quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 108 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Midwest Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. Abound Wealth Management boosted its position in Ecolab by 212.5% in the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at $47,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.6 %

ECL stock opened at $253.51 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $253.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $250.00. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.05 and a twelve month high of $273.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.74 billion, a PE ratio of 34.35, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS 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, equities analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be given a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.03%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.23%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on ECL. StockNews.com cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $257.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $263.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Argus raised Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $288.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 856 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.37, for a total transaction of $228,868.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,140 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,911.80. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Machiel Duijser sold 5,721 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.04, for a total transaction of $1,510,572.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,774 shares in the company, valued at $996,486.96. The trade was a 60.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 17,435 shares of company stock worth $4,637,985 over the last ninety days. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.