Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC Raises Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,097 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $726,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 32.7% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $602,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in Ecolab by 15.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,589,000 after purchasing an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its holdings in Ecolab by 797.3% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,550,000 after purchasing an additional 15,834 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings 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 worth $381,552,000 after purchasing an additional 129,635 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 29,178,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,176,511,348.95. The trade was a 0.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.47.

Ecolab Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $240.88 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $241.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $245.63. The company has a market cap of $68.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $195.49 and a fifty-two week high of $262.61. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The company’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.08%. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 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.