Pacer Advisors Inc. Purchases 4,220 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 14.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 33,886 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,220 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $8,652,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Ecolab by 16.4% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 9,501 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,426,000 after purchasing an additional 1,337 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 25.3% in the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 551,742 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $140,877,000 after purchasing an additional 111,302 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 904,631 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $230,979,000 after purchasing an additional 7,264 shares during the period. Cornerstone Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 11.1% in the third quarter. Cornerstone Advisors LLC now owns 8,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,043,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares during the period. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 14.5% during the third quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 9,324 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,383,000 after buying an additional 1,181 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.20.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of ECL stock traded down $2.37 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $245.24. The company had a trading volume of 1,026,020 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,085,939. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $182.39 and a 52-week high of $262.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $252.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $243.69. The stock has a market cap of $69.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.38, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.54 EPS. Ecolab’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $98,250.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,010,250. The trade was a 1.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total value of $101,023,861.12. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. This trade represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 478,355 shares of company stock valued at $117,922,965. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Company 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.