Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Buys 268 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 11.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,512 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 268 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $641,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 1st quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $245.11 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The company has a 50-day moving average of $252.35 and a 200 day moving average of $243.53. The firm has a market cap of $69.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.38, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $182.39 and a 1 year high of $262.61.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.20.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 30,776,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. This trade represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. The trade was a 32.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 478,355 shares of company stock worth $117,922,965. 0.04% of the stock is 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.