Bailard Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Bailard Inc. grew its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,689 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 242 shares during the quarter. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,270,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ECL. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new position in Ecolab in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Midwest Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab in the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Abound Wealth Management lifted its stake in Ecolab by 212.5% in the 4th quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Argus raised Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Three equities research 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.00.

Insider Transactions 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 directly 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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director David Maclennan acquired 400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $264.51 per share, with a total value of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,964,059.17. This represents a 2.18 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 17,435 shares of company stock valued at $4,637,985. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE ECL opened at $268.64 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $76.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $247.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $248.76. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.05 and a 1-year high of $270.57.

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

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend 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.