Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Shares Bought by Brooklyn Investment Group

Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 31.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 589 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 140 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $138,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 12.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 714,702 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $170,110,000 after buying an additional 78,721 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 15.2% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 15,032 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,578,000 after purchasing an additional 1,986 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Ecolab by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 8,164 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,943,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 11.4% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 10,117 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,408,000 after purchasing an additional 1,036 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 1.4% during the second quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 37,142 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,840,000 after buying an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.47.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total transaction of $101,023,861.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,599,313,132.56. This trade represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. 0.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE:ECL opened at $237.63 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $241.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $245.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $195.49 and a 1-year 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.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.

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.