ICW Investment Advisors LLC Grows Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

ICW Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,794 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 149 shares during the quarter. ICW Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,358,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 134.8% in the fourth quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 108 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Midwest Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Abound Wealth Management raised its stake in Ecolab by 212.5% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ECL shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $288.00.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE ECL opened at $250.79 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $254.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $250.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $71.13 billion, a PE ratio of 33.98, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.05 and a 12 month high of $273.69.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.42% and a return on equity of 22.50%. Equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 18th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 35.23%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director David Maclennan purchased 400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $264.51 per share, with a total value of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,767 shares in the company, valued at $4,964,059.17. This represents a 2.18 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Machiel Duijser sold 5,721 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.04, for a total transaction of $1,510,572.84. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $996,486.96. The trade was a 60.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,435 shares of company stock worth $4,637,985 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.