Board of the Pension Protection Fund Takes Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,100 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $726,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 27,950.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 738,567 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $188,578,000 after acquiring an additional 735,934 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its position in Ecolab by 295.2% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 791,246 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $188,317,000 after purchasing an additional 591,040 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its position in Ecolab by 580.7% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 303,565 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $72,248,000 after purchasing an additional 258,971 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank increased its stake in Ecolab by 750.9% during the 3rd quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 162,607 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $41,519,000 after purchasing an additional 143,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its holdings in Ecolab by 64.6% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 330,475 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $84,380,000 after buying an additional 129,738 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total value of $17,216,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,176,511,348.95. The trade was a 0.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on ECL shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 25th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.47.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of ECL stock opened at $233.65 on Wednesday. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $195.49 and a 1 year high of $262.61. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $242.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $245.57. The company has a market cap of $66.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.77, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13. 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 released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.54 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.11%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 36.47%.

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.