Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Sells 709 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lessened its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 66,401 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 709 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $16,954,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Independent Advisor Alliance lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 4,418 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,128,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in Ecolab by 11.8% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 47,350 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,090,000 after buying an additional 4,997 shares in the last quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC raised its stake in Ecolab by 11.1% in the third quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 2,579 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $660,000 after buying an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 8.2% during the third quarter. Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 3,534 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $902,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 17.5% during the third quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 1,045 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $267,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. This represents a 32.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, 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 shares were sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total value 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. This trade represents a 0.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 838,770 shares of company stock worth $206,273,864. 0.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on ECL shares. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. 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. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup raised Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $306.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $279.87.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $245.30 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.40, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $251.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $244.45. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $186.00 and a 12 month high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

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.