Essex Financial Services Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Essex Financial Services Inc. increased its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 6.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,360 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 83 shares during the quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $319,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new position in Ecolab during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners increased its position in Ecolab by 62.0% during the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab during the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Abound Wealth Management increased its position in Ecolab by 212.5% during the 4th quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at $47,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total transaction of $25,698,995.82. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 29,348,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,079,209,816.61. This represents a 0.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders sold 260,415 shares of company stock valued at $63,544,899 in the last quarter. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $257.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $284.33.

Ecolab Price Performance

ECL opened at $265.74 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $75.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $242.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $246.20. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $213.94 and a 52-week high of $267.56.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. As a group, analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.64 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

About Ecolab

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.