Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Acquires 66,035 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 13.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 543,128 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 66,035 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $127,266,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth approximately $521,399,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its holdings in Ecolab by 206.7% during the 4th quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 767,108 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $179,749,000 after purchasing an additional 516,970 shares during the period. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at $80,564,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 3,995,817 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $936,300,000 after buying an additional 304,478 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 50.2% during the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 886,653 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $207,758,000 after buying an additional 296,344 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on ECL shares. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Argus upgraded shares of Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $270.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Ecolab from $295.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $286.88.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan acquired 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $264.51 per share, with a total value of $105,804.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 18,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,964,059.17. The trade was a 2.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 856 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.37, for a total transaction of $228,868.72. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,911.80. This trade represents a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,435 shares of company stock worth $4,637,985 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.3 %

NYSE:ECL opened at $249.29 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.05 and a twelve month high of $273.69. The company has a market cap of $70.71 billion, a PE ratio of 33.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. The company’s 50 day moving average is $256.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $250.18.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. Analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.23%.

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.