YHB Investment Advisors Inc. Boosts Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

YHB Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 75,781 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 414 shares during the period. Ecolab accounts for 1.5% of YHB Investment Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. YHB Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $17,757,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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

Ecolab Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of ECL opened at $246.02 on Tuesday. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $195.49 and a 12-month high of $262.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The company has a market capitalization of $69.66 billion, a PE ratio of 34.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. The business’s 50 day moving average is $241.23 and its 200 day moving average is $245.64.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.54 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.65 dividend. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. 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 1.06%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total value of $15,850,657.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ECL. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays lifted their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Morgan Stanley raised Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.60.

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.