Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC Buys 469 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 6.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,127 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 469 shares during the period. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,904,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ECL. Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter valued at about $330,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $2,497,000 after purchasing an additional 867 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 40,209 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,267,000 after purchasing an additional 1,717 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,778 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $453,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Pacific Financial lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 5,943 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,518,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Up 6.2 %

NYSE:ECL opened at $261.07 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $73.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $201.99 and a twelve month high of $267.56. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $241.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $245.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. Equities research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.00%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.06, for a total transaction of $24,806,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,718,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,372,030,892.46. The trade was a 0.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders have sold 360,415 shares of company stock valued at $88,350,899. 0.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ECL. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. 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. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.60.

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.