Nordea Investment Management AB Increases Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 8.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 129,635 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $381,552,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. NBC Securities Inc. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 2.3% during the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,778 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $453,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the period. Community Financial Services Group LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 0.3% in the third quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 15,429 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,940,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 3.0% during the third quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,391 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $355,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Bangor Savings Bank grew its position in Ecolab by 17.3% during the third quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 292 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Leverty Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Leverty Financial Group LLC now owns 8,718 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,226,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ECL. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $306.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of 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 report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $280.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total transaction of $101,023,861.12. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,599,313,132.56. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 in the last quarter. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ecolab Price Performance

NYSE ECL opened at $231.93 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $244.81 and a 200 day moving average of $246.01. The company has a market capitalization of $65.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.53, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $193.46 and a one year high of $262.61.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.54 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.47%.

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.