Foundations Investment Advisors LLC Has $348,000 Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Foundations Investment Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 8.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,487 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 145 shares during the period. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $348,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in Ecolab by 32.7% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $602,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 15.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,589,000 after purchasing an additional 855 shares in the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth $1,262,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Ecolab by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $381,552,000 after buying an additional 129,635 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 797.3% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,550,000 after buying an additional 15,834 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL stock opened at $249.97 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $70.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.13. 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 Inc. has a 12 month low of $195.49 and a 12 month high of $262.61. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $241.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $245.73.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a boost 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 yield of 1.04%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total transaction of $25,698,995.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 425,430 shares of company stock valued at $104,201,556. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays raised their target price 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, October 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.60.

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.