Sanctuary Advisors LLC Purchases 4,731 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 16.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 33,596 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 4,731 shares during the quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $8,241,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. Coastline Trust Co bought a new position in Ecolab in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 2nd quarter worth $33,000. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 2nd quarter worth $33,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, UBS Group cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $279.87.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE ECL opened at $250.20 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.85 billion, a PE ratio of 35.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $250.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $245.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $193.46 and a 12 month high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.54 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.47%.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 100,000 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.06, for a total value of $24,806,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,718,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,372,030,892.46. The trade was a 0.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

About Ecolab

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.