Pitcairn Co. Sells 418 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Pitcairn Co. cut its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,148 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 418 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,591,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Coastline Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the third quarter valued at about $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the first quarter worth approximately $31,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. This represents a 32.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 838,770 shares of company stock valued at $206,273,864. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $279.87.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of ECL opened at $245.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $69.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $251.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $244.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $186.00 and a 1 year high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued 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. The business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. Ecolab’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.54 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.