Vontobel Holding Ltd. Grows Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 206.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 767,108 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 516,970 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $179,749,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ritholtz Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at $330,000. Creative Planning grew its position in Ecolab by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 40,209 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,267,000 after acquiring an additional 1,717 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. grew its position in Ecolab by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,778 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $453,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC increased its stake in Ecolab by 2,188.9% during the third quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 206 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the period. Finally, SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 6.3% during the third quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,852 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $473,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Price Performance

ECL stock opened at $265.74 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $75.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.27, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $213.94 and a fifty-two week high of $267.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $242.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $246.20.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.47%.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 260,415 shares of company stock worth $63,544,899. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ECL. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Ecolab from $257.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $284.33.

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.