Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Short Interest Up 22.3% in January

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,360,000 shares, an increase of 22.3% from the December 31st total of 1,930,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,040,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days. Currently, 0.9% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley raised Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 25th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.60.

Ecolab Stock Up 2.3 %

ECL stock opened at $252.65 on Friday. Ecolab has a 12 month low of $195.49 and a 12 month high of $262.61. 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 company has a market cap of $71.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $241.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $245.68.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.54 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Ecolab will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.03%. This is a boost 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 (DPR) is presently 36.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.06, for a total transaction of $24,806,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,718,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,372,030,892.46. This represents a 0.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 425,430 shares of company stock valued at $104,201,556. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Copperleaf Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 11.6% during the fourth quarter. Copperleaf Capital LLC now owns 2,562 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $600,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in Ecolab by 64.5% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,898 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $700,000 after buying an additional 1,136 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth $3,685,000. Principal Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 10,034 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,351,000 after acquiring an additional 702 shares during the period. Finally, Palumbo Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC now owns 859 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $201,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.