Studio Investment Management LLC Decreases Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Studio Investment Management LLC lowered its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,792 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 180 shares during the quarter. Studio Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $970,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. CreativeOne Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the first quarter valued at approximately $205,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 8.4% in the first quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,609 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $602,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 6.6% in the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,849 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,120,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Linscomb Wealth Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 2.0% during the first quarter. Linscomb Wealth Inc. now owns 10,756 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,484,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 1st quarter valued at about $456,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $279.87.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In related news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. This represents a 32.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $98,250.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 24,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,010,250. The trade was a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 662,228 shares of company stock valued at $163,358,368 over the last 90 days. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of ECL stock opened at $243.39 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $251.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $244.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.00 and a 52 week high of $262.61. The company has a market cap of $68.92 billion, a PE ratio of 34.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The company’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.54 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab 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.