KFG Wealth Management LLC Has $243,000 Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

KFG Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 7.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,035 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the quarter. KFG Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $243,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Coastline Trust Co bought a new position in Ecolab during the third quarter worth $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners boosted its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Hara Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Abound Wealth Management increased its position in Ecolab by 212.5% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC raised its stake in Ecolab by 2,188.9% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 206 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. UBS Group lowered shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total transaction of $101,023,861.12. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,599,313,132.56. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 over the last ninety days. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE ECL opened at $242.28 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $241.23 and its 200-day moving average is $245.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $68.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.98, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $195.49 and a one year high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.07%. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 36.47%.

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.