PFG Investments LLC Has $936,000 Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

PFG Investments LLC grew its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,995 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 121 shares during the quarter. PFG Investments LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $936,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 32.7% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after buying an additional 855 shares in the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,262,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Ecolab by 8.7% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its position in Ecolab by 797.3% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ecolab Stock Performance

ECL stock opened at $249.71 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $241.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $245.65. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $195.49 and a 1-year high of $262.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market cap of $70.71 billion, a PE ratio of 35.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted 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. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a $0.65 dividend. 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.04%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.60.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the business’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.