Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc Purchases 246 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc increased its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,323 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 246 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,104,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ECL. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Ecolab during the first quarter worth $390,687,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 27,950.4% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 738,567 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $188,578,000 after purchasing an additional 735,934 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 295.2% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 791,246 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $188,317,000 after purchasing an additional 591,040 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 1.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,486,858 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,423,116,000 after buying an additional 304,402 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in Ecolab by 580.7% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 303,565 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $72,248,000 after buying an additional 258,971 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on ECL shares. Bank of America upgraded Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.20.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $247.61 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $182.39 and a 1 year 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 stock has a market cap of $70.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.73, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $252.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $243.50.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. Ecolab’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,014,586.40. The trade was a 32.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 478,355 shares of company stock valued at $117,922,965. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.