F M Investments LLC Sells 12,568 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

F M Investments LLC lessened its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 38.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 20,375 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 12,568 shares during the period. F M Investments LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $4,774,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Continuum Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 33.6% in the 3rd quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 390 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $97,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 9.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 796,170 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $203,285,000 after buying an additional 69,142 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 9.0% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,153 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,059,000 after acquiring an additional 342 shares during the period. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab in the third quarter valued at about $242,000. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its position in Ecolab by 16.4% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 33,596 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,241,000 after acquiring an additional 4,731 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $313.00 to $265.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup reduced their price target on Ecolab from $305.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $295.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $284.00.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan purchased 400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 18,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,964,059.17. The trade was a 2.18 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Machiel Duijser sold 5,721 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.04, for a total value of $1,510,572.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,774 shares in the company, valued at $996,486.96. This represents a 60.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,435 shares of company stock worth $4,637,985 over the last ninety days. 0.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $232.08 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $65.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.45, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $217.05 and a one year high of $273.69. 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 50 day simple moving average of $254.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $249.29.

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

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.12%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 35.23%.

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.