Middleton & Co. Inc. MA Sells 543 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Middleton & Co. Inc. MA lessened its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 34,725 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 543 shares during the period. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $8,137,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 32.7% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $602,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% in the third 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 purchasing an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 797.3% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 8.7% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ECL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $263.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $313.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other news, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 856 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.37, for a total transaction of $228,868.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,911.80. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Machiel Duijser sold 5,721 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.04, for a total value of $1,510,572.84. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $996,486.96. The trade was a 60.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,435 shares of company stock valued at $4,637,985 in the last quarter. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of ECL opened at $268.64 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.26. The firm has a market cap of $76.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.05 and a fifty-two week high of $270.57. The business has a 50-day moving average of $247.25 and a 200 day moving average of $248.64.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 18th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 35.23%.

Ecolab Company 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.