Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Upgraded at Morgan Stanley

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) was upgraded by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report issued on Tuesday,Finviz reports. The brokerage currently has a $280.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $263.00. Morgan Stanley’s target price suggests a potential upside of 13.81% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. UBS Group cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.60.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE ECL opened at $246.02 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $241.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $245.64. Ecolab has a 12-month low of $195.49 and a 12-month high of $262.61. The company has a market capitalization of $69.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 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 issued its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.54 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Ecolab will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ecolab

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 62,604 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $14,669,000 after acquiring an additional 1,622 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 643,006 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $150,669,000 after purchasing an additional 1,968 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,685,000. YANKCOM Partnership bought a new position in Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at $492,000. Finally, Choreo LLC increased its position in Ecolab by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 7,380 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,730,000 after buying an additional 994 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

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.