RFG Advisory LLC Sells 550 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

RFG Advisory LLC lessened its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 7.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,140 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 550 shares during the period. RFG Advisory LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,673,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. NBC Securities Inc. raised its holdings in Ecolab by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,778 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $453,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Community Financial Services Group LLC boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 3.0% during the third quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,391 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $355,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Bangor Savings Bank grew its stake in Ecolab by 17.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 292 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $75,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,097 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $726,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.3 %

ECL opened at $242.28 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $241.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $245.60. The firm has a market cap of $68.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $195.49 and a 52 week high of $262.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.54 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.07%. This is a positive change 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 36.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ECL shares. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays increased their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.