Pathstone Holdings LLC Lowers Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Pathstone Holdings LLC lessened its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 5.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 53,817 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 3,060 shares during the quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $12,619,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,149,744 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,658,768,000 after acquiring an additional 105,289 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,273,277 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,231,873,000 after acquiring an additional 91,475 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 3,995,817 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $936,300,000 after acquiring an additional 304,478 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 19.7% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,129,058 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $733,201,000 after acquiring an additional 514,944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,993,504 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $701,438,000 after acquiring an additional 165,949 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 856 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.37, for a total transaction of $228,868.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,911.80. The trade was a 17.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Maclennan acquired 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $251.75 per share, with a total value of $125,875.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 19,465 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,900,313.75. This trade represents a 2.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on ECL shares. Citigroup decreased their price target on Ecolab from $305.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Ecolab from $277.00 to $273.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. StockNews.com upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Argus upgraded Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $270.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $282.47.

Ecolab Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of ECL opened at $255.66 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $246.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $247.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.26. The company has a market capitalization of $72.51 billion, a PE ratio of 34.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.05. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $220.96 and a fifty-two week high of $273.69.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.50. The company had revenue of $3.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.71 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. Ecolab’s revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.34 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.02%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.33%.

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.