Diversified Trust Co Purchases 123 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Diversified Trust Co raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,984 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the quarter. Diversified Trust Co’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,339,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. CWA Asset Management Group LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 1,792 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $420,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in Ecolab by 8.7% during 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 buying an additional 129,635 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,557,000 after buying an additional 527 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 36.3% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 578 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $135,000 after buying an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 5.9% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 301,591 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $77,005,000 after acquiring an additional 16,747 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on ECL shares. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. BMO Capital Markets raised Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.27.

Ecolab Price Performance

ECL stock opened at $231.74 on Wednesday. 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 Inc. has a 12 month low of $193.46 and a 12 month high of $262.61. The stock has a market cap of $65.62 billion, a PE ratio of 32.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $243.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $245.84.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.54 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 36.47%.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total value of $17,216,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 29,178,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,176,511,348.95. This represents a 0.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab 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.