OLD National Bancorp IN Sells 153 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

OLD National Bancorp IN reduced its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,634 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 153 shares during the quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,554,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. NBC Securities Inc. increased its stake in Ecolab by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,778 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $453,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 0.3% in 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 during the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $355,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Invesco LLC lifted its position in Ecolab by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Invesco LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $250,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bangor Savings Bank lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 17.3% during the third quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 292 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $75,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ecolab Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE ECL opened at $249.97 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $195.49 and a 12 month high of $262.61. The stock has a market cap of $70.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $241.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $245.73. 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 (NYSE:ECL) last announced 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. The business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The company’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.54 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 36.47%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on ECL shares. Morgan Stanley raised Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target 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. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 25th. Finally, UBS Group lowered Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, November 4th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold 425,430 shares of company stock worth $104,201,556 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.