Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc Has $996,000 Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc decreased its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,247 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 76 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $996,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ECL. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 206.7% in the 4th quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 767,108 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $179,749,000 after buying an additional 516,970 shares in the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $80,564,000. KBC Group NV raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 64.6% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 330,475 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $84,380,000 after buying an additional 129,738 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 8.7% in the 4th 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, Erste Asset Management GmbH acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,276,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Trading Down 1.1 %

ECL opened at $264.47 on Monday. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.05 and a fifty-two week high of $268.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.84, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $244.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $247.78.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.42% and a return on equity of 22.50%. As a group, research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.23%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on ECL shares. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price 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. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Argus upgraded shares of Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $313.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $257.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $284.33.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan acquired 400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,767 shares in the company, valued at $4,964,059.17. This represents a 2.18 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Machiel Duijser sold 5,721 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.04, for a total transaction of $1,510,572.84. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $996,486.96. This trade represents a 60.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.