First Horizon Advisors Inc. Sells 114 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. lessened its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 7.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,470 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 114 shares during the quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $344,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners grew its position in Ecolab by 62.0% during 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 during the period. Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Hara Capital LLC bought a new position in Ecolab in the third quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Abound Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 212.5% during the 4th quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on ECL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Argus upgraded Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan acquired 400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,964,059.17. This trade represents a 2.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Machiel Duijser sold 5,721 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,774 shares in the company, valued at approximately $996,486.96. This trade represents a 60.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $265.64 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $75.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $245.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $248.16. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.05 and a fifty-two week high of $268.16. 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 (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, meeting 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, sell-side analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.23%.

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.