Perigon Wealth Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Perigon Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 7.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 416 shares during the quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,356,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners increased its stake in Ecolab by 62.0% in the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab during the third quarter valued at about $40,000. Abound Wealth Management lifted its stake in Ecolab by 212.5% during the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 2,188.9% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 206 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total value of $25,698,995.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,348,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,079,209,816.61. This trade represents a 0.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last quarter, insiders sold 425,430 shares of company stock valued at $104,201,556. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 25th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.60.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $247.05 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The business has a 50 day moving average of $241.34 and a 200 day moving average of $245.67. The company has a market cap of $69.95 billion, a PE ratio of 34.65, a P/E/G 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.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.05%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 36.47%.

Ecolab 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.