Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Short Interest Up 5.3% in November

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 2,000,000 shares, a growth of 5.3% from the November 15th total of 1,900,000 shares. Currently, 0.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 976,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on ECL. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. 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 report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total value of $17,216,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,176,511,348.95. The trade was a 0.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 in the last quarter. 0.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ecolab

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in Ecolab by 30.0% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 776 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $179,000 after acquiring an additional 179 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in Ecolab by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 194,106 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $46,197,000 after buying an additional 9,731 shares during the period. Western Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Ecolab by 27.8% in the second quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,749 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $416,000 after buying an additional 380 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Ecolab by 37.8% during the second quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,764 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,848,000 after buying an additional 2,131 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its position in Ecolab by 1.4% during the second quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 73,943 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $17,598,000 after acquiring an additional 1,039 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.6 %

Ecolab stock opened at $246.17 on Wednesday. Ecolab has a 12-month low of $193.46 and a 12-month high of $262.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $69.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $250.20 and a 200 day moving average of $246.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 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 the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The company’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.54 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Ecolab will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.06%. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

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.