Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. Sells 460 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. lowered its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 19.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 460 shares during the quarter. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $445,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 92,639 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,707,000 after purchasing an additional 3,080 shares during the period. Corundum Group Inc. grew its position in Ecolab by 47.9% during the fourth quarter. Corundum Group Inc. now owns 7,548 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,769,000 after buying an additional 2,444 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Ecolab by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 54,640 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,803,000 after buying an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services raised its position in Ecolab by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 10,700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,507,000 after acquiring an additional 652 shares during the period. Finally, Sarasin & Partners LLP boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 328,395 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $76,950,000 after acquiring an additional 4,789 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Ecolab stock opened at $237.63 on Tuesday. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $195.49 and a 1-year high of $262.61. The company’s 50-day moving average is $241.96 and its 200 day moving average is $245.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. Ecolab’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.54 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.09%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their price objective on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.47.

Insider Activity

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total transaction of $101,023,861.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,599,313,132.56. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.