Sawyer & Company Inc Has $2.83 Million Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Sawyer & Company Inc reduced its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 15.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 12,066 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,175 shares during the period. Sawyer & Company Inc’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,827,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of ECL. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 2.3% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,778 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $453,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 15,429 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,940,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Angeles Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,391 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $355,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Bangor Savings Bank increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 17.3% during the third quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 292 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Finally, Leverty Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Ecolab by 0.5% during the third quarter. Leverty Financial Group LLC now owns 8,718 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,226,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 100,000 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 0.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 in the last 90 days. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Stock Up 1.2 %

ECL stock opened at $236.64 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.01 billion, a PE ratio of 33.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $195.49 and a twelve month high of $262.61. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $242.51 and its 200-day moving average is $245.57.

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

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.65 dividend. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.10%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.47.

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.