E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB Increases Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB raised its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 12.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 11,450 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,250 shares during the quarter. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,683,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ECL. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its stake in Ecolab by 2.3% during the third 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 last quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC raised its holdings in Ecolab by 0.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 3.0% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Invesco LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Invesco LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $250,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bangor Savings Bank grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 17.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 292 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $75,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. 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 raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 25th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.60.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $248.90 on Wednesday. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $195.49 and a 52 week high of $262.61. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $241.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $245.86. The company has a market cap of $70.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.91, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. 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 Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.47%.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 83,873 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.96, for a total transaction of $20,629,403.08. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,534,868 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,264,396,133.28. This represents a 0.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 360,415 shares of company stock worth $88,350,899 over the last three months. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.