Concord Wealth Partners Acquires 57 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Concord Wealth Partners grew its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 62.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the quarter. Concord Wealth Partners’ holdings in Ecolab were worth $38,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ECL. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 1st quarter valued at about $390,687,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 27,950.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 738,567 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $188,578,000 after acquiring an additional 735,934 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in Ecolab by 295.2% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 791,246 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $188,317,000 after purchasing an additional 591,040 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Ecolab by 1.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,486,858 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,423,116,000 after purchasing an additional 304,402 shares during the period. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in Ecolab by 580.7% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 303,565 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $72,248,000 after purchasing an additional 258,971 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ECL. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $234.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $233.00 to $283.00 in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of 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. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $271.80.

Ecolab Trading Up 1.2 %

ECL stock opened at $256.45 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.50. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $252.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $241.28. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $157.59 and a 52 week high of $262.61. The company has a market capitalization of $72.97 billion, a PE ratio of 43.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.95% and a return on equity of 21.65%. The business had revenue of $3.99 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.24 earnings per share. Ecolab’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 17th were given a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 17th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.89%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 38.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,014,586.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,014,586.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $98,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,010,250. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.