Financial Counselors Inc. Purchases 863 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Financial Counselors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 117,955 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 863 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $30,117,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Coastline Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab in the second quarter worth $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ecolab in the second quarter valued at $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab during the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the first quarter worth about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were 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 directly owns 24,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,010,250. This represents a 1.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total transaction of $25,698,995.82. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 29,348,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,079,209,816.61. This trade represents a 0.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 834,959 shares of company stock worth $205,323,667. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup upgraded Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $279.87.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $247.55 on Thursday. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $187.86 and a 1 year high of $262.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $251.54 and its 200 day moving average is $244.66. The company has a market cap of $70.10 billion, a PE ratio of 34.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS 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.