J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,828 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 179 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,834,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ECL. Creative Planning raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 40,209 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,267,000 after purchasing an additional 1,717 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 3,845 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $982,000 after buying an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Ecolab by 144.7% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,899 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $452,000 after acquiring an additional 1,123 shares during the period. Capital Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab in the third quarter valued at approximately $208,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 2.2% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 198,285 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $50,628,000 after purchasing an additional 4,179 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,348,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,079,209,816.61. This trade represents a 0.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $264.99 on Tuesday. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $213.94 and a 52 week high of $268.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market cap of $75.04 billion, a PE ratio of 37.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $242.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $246.69.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.98%. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ECL. StockNews.com upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $284.33.

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.