Blueshift Asset Management LLC Has $584,000 Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Blueshift Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 133.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,288 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,310 shares during the quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $584,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Triad Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab during the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab in the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total value of $25,698,995.82. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,348,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,079,209,816.61. This represents a 0.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $98,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,010,250. The trade was a 1.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 834,959 shares of company stock worth $205,323,667 in the last quarter. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $251.00 to $272.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $279.87.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of ECL stock opened at $247.55 on Thursday. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $187.86 and a 12 month high of $262.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.72, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $251.54 and its 200 day moving average is $244.66.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The firm 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.54 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

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.