S.A. Mason LLC Purchases 60 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

S.A. Mason LLC lifted its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 8.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. S.A. Mason LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $179,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab by 32.7% in the third 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. lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,589,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at $1,262,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 129,635 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its position in Ecolab by 797.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,550,000 after acquiring an additional 15,834 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ecolab Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE ECL opened at $249.97 on Monday. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $195.49 and a 52 week high of $262.61. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $241.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $245.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market cap of $70.78 billion, a PE ratio of 35.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ECL. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 transaction of $17,216,500.00. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold 360,415 shares of company stock worth $88,350,899 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.50% 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.