Fulton Bank N.A. bought a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL – Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,177 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $276,000.
Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 32.7% in 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 during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% in the 3rd 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. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 797.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 15,834 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 37,867 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,669,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 129,635 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 25th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.47.
Ecolab Trading Down 2.0 %
ECL stock opened at $229.95 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The business’s 50-day moving average is $243.00 and its 200 day moving average is $245.58. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $195.49 and a 12-month high of $262.61. The stock has a market cap of $65.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.25, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13.
Ecolab (NYSE:ECL – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Ecolab Increases Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.13%. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 100,000 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.06, for a total transaction of $24,806,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 29,718,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,372,030,892.46. The trade was a 0.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 in the last ninety days. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.
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