Grandfield & Dodd LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Grandfield & Dodd LLC reduced its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 30,127 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. Grandfield & Dodd LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $7,692,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ECL. Anthracite Investment Company Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,532,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Ecolab by 6.0% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,672 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,959,000 after acquiring an additional 433 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 0.3% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 132,757 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,897,000 after purchasing an additional 374 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the third quarter worth about $6,441,000. Finally, FWG Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 3.9% during the third quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 1,915 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $491,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. The trade was a 32.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $98,250.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,010,250. The trade was a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 578,355 shares of company stock valued at $142,728,965 over the last 90 days. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ECL shares. UBS Group cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, November 4th. Robert W. Baird lifted 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. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $279.87.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $244.27 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $69.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $252.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $244.20. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $182.39 and a 1 year high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.54 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

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.