Caprock Group LLC Acquires 461 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Caprock Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 6.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,166 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 461 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,834,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Coastline Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup raised Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $279.87.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total value of $101,023,861.12. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $98,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at $6,010,250. This trade represents a 1.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 662,228 shares of company stock valued at $163,358,368. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $241.77 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $252.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $244.19. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $184.95 and a 52 week high of $262.61. The company has a market cap of $68.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 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 (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.54 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.