Arlington Trust Co LLC Grows Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Arlington Trust Co LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,757 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 150 shares during the quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $880,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ECL. CWM LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 11,640 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,972,000 after buying an additional 778 shares in the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 249.2% during the 3rd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 1,945 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $497,000 after buying an additional 1,388 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter worth $330,000. Carnegie Investment Counsel grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 123,561 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $31,548,000 after buying an additional 7,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 9,781 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,497,000 after buying an additional 867 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL stock opened at $247.39 on Monday. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $200.50 and a fifty-two week high of $262.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.70, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $241.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $245.95.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.05%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 36.47%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ECL has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total transaction of $17,216,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,176,511,348.95. This represents a 0.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders sold 360,415 shares of company stock valued at $88,350,899 over the last quarter. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.