Strategic Financial Concepts LLC Makes New $3.69 Million Investment in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 15,728 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,685,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its stake in Ecolab by 15.9% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares in the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,262,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 8.7% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $381,552,000 after purchasing an additional 129,635 shares during the period. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 797.3% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. UBS Group cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.60.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.1 %

ECL opened at $247.39 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $70.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $200.50 and a 12 month high of $262.61. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $241.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $245.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.05%. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total transaction of $25,698,995.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,348,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,079,209,816.61. This represents a 0.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 360,415 shares of company stock valued at $88,350,899. 0.04% of the stock is currently 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.