288 Shares in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Bought by Crews Bank & Trust

Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 288 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Ecolab by 27,950.4% in 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 in the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at about $80,564,000. Eastern Bank increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 750.9% in the third quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 162,607 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $41,519,000 after acquiring an additional 143,497 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its position in Ecolab by 64.6% during the third 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. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in Ecolab by 8.7% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total value of $15,850,657.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. This trade represents a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 425,430 shares of company stock valued at $104,201,556 in the last quarter. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on ECL shares. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group lowered shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.60.

Ecolab Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:ECL opened at $249.97 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $195.49 and a 52 week high of $262.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $241.63 and its 200-day moving average is $245.73. The firm has a market cap of $70.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.04%. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

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.