Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers LLC Has $8.68 Million Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers LLC decreased its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 37,035 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,536 shares during the period. Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $8,678,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 27,950.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 738,567 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $188,578,000 after buying an additional 735,934 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 295.2% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 791,246 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $188,317,000 after purchasing an additional 591,040 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 580.7% in the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 303,565 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $72,248,000 after purchasing an additional 258,971 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank raised its holdings in Ecolab by 750.9% during the third quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 162,607 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $41,519,000 after buying an additional 143,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 64.6% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 330,475 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $84,380,000 after acquiring an additional 129,738 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ECL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group lowered shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com lowered Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 25th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,599,313,132.56. This trade represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $237.63 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $241.96 and its 200-day moving average is $245.62. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $195.49 and a 52 week high of $262.61. The company has a market capitalization of $67.29 billion, a PE ratio of 33.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.54 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 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.