V Square Quantitative Management LLC Acquires 276 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

V Square Quantitative Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 6,133 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 276 shares during the period. V Square Quantitative Management LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,437,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the third quarter worth $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 62.0% during the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the 3rd quarter worth about $40,000. Abound Wealth Management raised its stake in Ecolab by 212.5% in the 4th quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares during the period. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at about $47,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ECL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $313.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Citigroup increased their target price on Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $284.33.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab 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 transaction of $25,698,995.82. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,348,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,079,209,816.61. This represents a 0.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 260,415 shares of company stock worth $63,544,899 over the last three months. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Trading Up 1.4 %

ECL opened at $265.74 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $242.33 and a 200 day moving average of $246.20. 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 $213.94 and a 12 month high of $267.56. The firm has a market cap of $75.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.64 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. 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. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

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.