Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC Increases Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 12,749 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 321 shares during the period. Ecolab accounts for 1.4% of Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,987,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ecolab by 32.7% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $602,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,589,000 after purchasing an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its stake in Ecolab by 797.3% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,550,000 after purchasing an additional 15,834 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Ecolab by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $381,552,000 after purchasing an additional 129,635 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on ECL shares. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. 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. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, October 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.47.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.6 %

ECL stock opened at $237.63 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $67.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $195.49 and a 12 month high of $262.61. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $241.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $245.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 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%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total transaction of $101,023,861.12. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. 0.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.