Sawtooth Solutions LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL – Get Rating) by 36.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,855 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 764 shares during the period. Sawtooth Solutions LLC's holdings in Ecolab were worth $439,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 14.8% in the second quarter. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 791 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $122,000 after buying an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Ellevest Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 245.8% in the second quarter. Ellevest Inc. now owns 415 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 295 shares during the last quarter. Brinker Capital Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 36.9% in the second quarter. Brinker Capital Investments LLC now owns 98,458 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $15,139,000 after buying an additional 26,563 shares during the last quarter. Veriti Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 4.5% in the second quarter. Veriti Management LLC now owns 3,404 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $523,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BLB&B Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 1.3% in the second quarter. BLB&B Advisors LLC now owns 39,288 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $6,041,000 after buying an additional 493 shares during the last quarter. 87.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ECL. Bank of America cut Ecolab from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $193.00 to $183.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 13th. Mizuho lowered their target price on Ecolab from $198.00 to $183.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Ecolab from $200.00 to $181.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 27th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Ecolab to $198.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Ecolab from $225.00 to $190.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 14th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $194.06.
Insider Activity at Ecolab
In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III acquired 149,190 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 11th. The shares were bought at an average price of $171.47 per share, with a total value of $25,581,609.30. Following the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 30,834,744 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,287,233,553.68. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at
this link. In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III bought 149,190 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 11th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $171.47 per share, with a total value of $25,581,609.30. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 30,834,744 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,287,233,553.68. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through
this link. Also, EVP Angela M. Busch sold 2,300 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.66, for a total value of $392,518.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,716 shares in the company, valued at $2,852,752.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found
here. Insiders have bought a total of 274,284 shares of company stock valued at $47,244,385 in the last 90 days. 1.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Ecolab Trading Down 1.9 %
Shares of ECL opened at $145.92 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $143.34 and a 52-week high of $238.93. The business's fifty day moving average is $164.03 and its 200-day moving average is $165.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market cap of $41.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.00, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.01.
Ecolab (NYSE:ECL – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 26th. The basic materials company reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.02. Ecolab had a return on equity of 18.56% and a net margin of 8.17%. The company had revenue of $3.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.48 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.22 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Ecolab Announces Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.51 per share. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 19th. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.13%.
Ecolab Company Profile
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Ecolab Inc provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Global Industrial, Global Institutional & Specialty, and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences segments. 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.
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