Intact Investment Management Inc. Buys Shares of 290 Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Intact Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 290 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $74,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its stake in Ecolab by 15.9% in the 3rd 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. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 84.3% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,098,000 after buying an additional 6,137 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 50.9% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,171,000 after acquiring an additional 1,660 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 19.1% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 21,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,895,000 after acquiring an additional 3,393 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Koshinski Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 1st quarter worth $1,194,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at $2,014,586.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $98,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,010,250. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 478,355 shares of company stock worth $117,922,965 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL opened at $246.85 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $70.24 billion, a PE ratio of 34.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $172.79 and a 52-week high of $262.61. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $252.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $242.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.54 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.66 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 target price on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.20.

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.