Lincoln Capital LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Lincoln Capital LLC lowered its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,455 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 106 shares during the quarter. Lincoln Capital LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,747,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 27,950.4% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 738,567 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $188,578,000 after purchasing an additional 735,934 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its position in Ecolab by 295.2% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 791,246 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $188,317,000 after buying an additional 591,040 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 580.7% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 303,565 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $72,248,000 after purchasing an additional 258,971 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank grew its position in Ecolab by 750.9% during the 3rd quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 162,607 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $41,519,000 after purchasing an additional 143,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its position in Ecolab by 64.6% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 330,475 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $84,380,000 after purchasing an additional 129,738 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total value of $17,216,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,176,511,348.95. The trade was a 0.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In the last three months, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on ECL shares. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. UBS Group lowered Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, November 4th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.47.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.6 %

ECL stock opened at $237.63 on Monday. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $195.49 and a twelve month high of $262.61. The stock has a market cap of $67.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.33, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $241.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $245.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

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

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.

Ecolab 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.