QRG Capital Management Inc. Acquires 19,501 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 207.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 28,886 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,501 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $7,375,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% during 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. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 84.3% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,098,000 after buying an additional 6,137 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 50.9% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,171,000 after buying an additional 1,660 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 19.1% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 21,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,895,000 after buying an additional 3,393 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Koshinski Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the first quarter valued at about $1,194,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $246.85 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $252.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $242.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $172.79 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.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. Ecolab’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.66 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at $2,014,586.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Ecolab news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at $2,014,586.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $98,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,010,250. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 478,355 shares of company stock worth $117,922,965 over the last ninety days. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on ECL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.20.

Ecolab 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.