Segment Wealth Management LLC Buys 113 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Segment Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 7.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,726 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the period. Segment Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $404,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in Ecolab by 32.7% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its stake in shares of 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 valued at $1,589,000 after buying an additional 855 shares during the period. PFW Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its position in Ecolab by 797.3% during the 3rd 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 period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in Ecolab by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $381,552,000 after acquiring an additional 129,635 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. 0.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.47.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $240.88 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $241.70 and its 200-day moving average is $245.63. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $195.49 and a twelve month high of $262.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $68.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.78, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 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 given 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.08%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Ecolab Company 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.