Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Shares Sold by Cadence Bank

Cadence Bank decreased its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,482 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 46 shares during the quarter. Cadence Bank’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $634,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in Ecolab by 32.7% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $602,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its stake in Ecolab by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 84.3% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,098,000 after acquiring an additional 6,137 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 50.9% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,171,000 after acquiring an additional 1,660 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in Ecolab by 9.6% during the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 283,748 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $65,653,000 after acquiring an additional 24,910 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.1 %

ECL opened at $247.55 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $251.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $244.66. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $187.86 and a twelve month 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. The firm has a market cap of $70.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 target price on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Bank of America raised Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Citigroup raised Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $279.87.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total transaction of $17,216,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,176,511,348.95. The trade was a 0.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $98,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 24,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,010,250. The trade was a 1.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 834,959 shares of company stock worth $205,323,667 over the last three months. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by 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.