Rhumbline Advisers Sells 20,281 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Rhumbline Advisers trimmed its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 489,295 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 20,281 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers owned 0.17% of Ecolab worth $114,651,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Coastline Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Hara Capital LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Abound Wealth Management raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at $47,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on ECL. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $284.33.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $264.99 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $242.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $246.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The company has a market cap of $75.04 billion, a PE ratio of 37.17, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $213.94 and a 52-week high of $268.00.

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

Ecolab Increases Dividend

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

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.