Affiance Financial LLC Buys 294 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Affiance Financial LLC lifted its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 16.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,077 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 294 shares during the period. Affiance Financial LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $487,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ECL. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 77.2% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 9,393 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,236,000 after buying an additional 4,092 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 12.1% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 109,521 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,066,000 after buying an additional 11,802 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. grew its holdings in Ecolab by 159.9% in the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 189,843 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $42,158,000 after buying an additional 116,809 shares in the last quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,540 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $843,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 2nd quarter worth $4,401,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 25th. UBS Group cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. 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 has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.47.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL opened at $242.28 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $195.49 and a fifty-two week high of $262.61. The company has a market cap of $68.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.98, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $241.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $245.60.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.54 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.07%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 36.47%.

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.