Echo Wealth Management LLC Grows Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Echo Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 21.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,436 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 250 shares during the quarter. Echo Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $336,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 77.2% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 9,393 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,236,000 after purchasing an additional 4,092 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 12.1% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 109,521 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,066,000 after buying an additional 11,802 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 159.9% in the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 189,843 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $42,158,000 after buying an additional 116,809 shares during the period. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in Ecolab by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,540 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $843,000 after buying an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MBB Public Markets I LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the second quarter valued at about $4,401,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total value of $101,023,861.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares in the company, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL stock opened at $242.28 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $195.49 and a 52-week high of $262.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $68.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $241.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $245.60. 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 results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion for 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 firm’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.54 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.07%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.47.

Ecolab 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.