HB Wealth Management LLC Has $1.66 Million Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

HB Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 22.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,069 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,303 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,656,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. grew its stake in Ecolab by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. now owns 2,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $620,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,636,000. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its holdings in Ecolab by 31.2% in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 589 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $138,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC raised its position in Ecolab by 99.8% during the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 2,563 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $601,000 after acquiring an additional 1,280 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC now owns 3,022 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $708,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ECL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.47.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total value of $101,023,861.12. Following the sale, the insider now owns 30,776,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,599,313,132.56. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. Company insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

ECL opened at $237.63 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $241.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $245.62. 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 stock has a market cap 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $195.49 and a 1 year 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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.54 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

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