First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Acquires 182 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. boosted its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,895 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,381,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ecolab by 32.7% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $602,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after purchasing an additional 855 shares during the period. PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,262,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 8.7% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $381,552,000 after purchasing an additional 129,635 shares during the period. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its position in Ecolab by 797.3% during the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,550,000 after acquiring an additional 15,834 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $242.28 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $241.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $245.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $68.60 billion, a PE ratio of 33.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. 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 Inc. has a twelve month low of $195.49 and a twelve month high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. Ecolab’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.07%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on ECL. BMO Capital Markets raised Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.47.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

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 stock was sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total value of $101,023,861.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,599,313,132.56. This trade represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 over the last ninety days. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.