Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC Acquires 236 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC raised its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 8.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,022 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 236 shares during the period. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $708,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 32.7% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $602,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after buying an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 797.3% during the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,550,000 after acquiring an additional 15,834 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $381,552,000 after purchasing an additional 129,635 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ECL traded up $1.11 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $240.26. 194,826 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,035,063. The company’s 50 day moving average is $242.35 and its 200 day moving average is $245.51. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $195.49 and a one year high of $262.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $68.03 billion, a PE ratio of 33.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.54 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.08%. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on ECL. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, November 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total value of $15,850,657.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 in the last quarter. 0.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.