Brighton Jones LLC Purchases 2,302 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 164.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,302 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $867,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 31st. The shares were 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. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 in the last ninety days. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 25th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.47.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of ECL opened at $242.28 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $195.49 and a 1 year 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $241.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $245.60. The firm has a market cap of $68.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.54 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

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

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.