Assetmark Inc. Has $1.83 Million Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 14.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,182 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 892 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,834,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 32.7% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $602,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 84.3% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,098,000 after purchasing an additional 6,137 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 50.9% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,171,000 after purchasing an additional 1,660 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 19.1% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 21,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,895,000 after purchasing an additional 3,393 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at $2,014,586.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,014,586.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares in the company, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 478,355 shares of company stock valued at $117,922,965 over the last three months. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ECL. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup upgraded Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $267.00 to $265.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.20.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE:ECL opened at $249.90 on Thursday. 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 12-month low of $181.40 and a 12-month high of $262.61. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $252.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $243.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13.

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

Ecolab Company 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.