Golden State Equity Partners Has $570,000 Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Golden State Equity Partners lifted its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 16.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,430 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 340 shares during the quarter. Golden State Equity Partners’ holdings in Ecolab were worth $570,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. NBC Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,778 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $453,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 15,429 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,940,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,391 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $355,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Invesco LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Invesco LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $250,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bangor Savings Bank grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 17.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 292 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $75,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $249.97 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $241.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $245.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.06, a PEG ratio of 2.74 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 Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.04%. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 83,873 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.96, for a total transaction of $20,629,403.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,534,868 shares in the company, valued at $7,264,396,133.28. This represents a 0.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders sold 360,415 shares of company stock worth $88,350,899 over the last three months. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ECL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. Finally, UBS Group cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.60.

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.