Andra AP fonden Has $16.50 Million Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Andra AP fonden grew its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 24.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 70,400 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,800 shares during the quarter. Andra AP fonden’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $16,496,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,885,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in Ecolab by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,521 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $357,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. Callan Family Office LLC boosted its position in Ecolab by 201.9% during the 4th quarter. Callan Family Office LLC now owns 5,142 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,205,000 after acquiring an additional 3,439 shares during the last quarter. Candriam S.C.A. raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Candriam S.C.A. now owns 341,168 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $79,942,000 after purchasing an additional 1,349 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geneva Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 18.9% during the 4th quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 7,306 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,712,000 after purchasing an additional 1,159 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ECL. UBS Group upped their price objective on Ecolab from $257.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. StockNews.com upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Ecolab from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $288.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 856 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.37, for a total transaction of $228,868.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,911.80. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Maclennan bought 400 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, 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 disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 17,435 shares of company stock worth $4,637,985 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Up 1.3 %

ECL stock opened at $269.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $76.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.54, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $250.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $249.61. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.05 and a fifty-two week high of $273.69.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 18th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 35.23%.

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.