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

Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc trimmed its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm 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 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Coastline Trust Co acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the third quarter worth $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 62.0% in the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at $39,000. Hara Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the third quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Abound Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 212.5% in the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on ECL. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $284.33.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of ECL stock opened at $264.47 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $74.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.26. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.05 and a 52 week high of $268.00. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $244.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $247.78.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.42% and a return on equity of 22.50%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 35.23%.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan bought 400 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 18,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,964,059.17. This trade represents a 2.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Machiel Duijser sold 5,721 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $996,486.96. The trade was a 60.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.