Bank of Montreal Can Lowers Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Bank of Montreal Can cut its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 29.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 278,384 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 116,372 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can owned about 0.10% of Ecolab worth $70,874,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ecolab by 32.7% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $602,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its position in Ecolab by 15.9% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares during 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 acquiring an additional 6,137 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 50.9% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,171,000 after purchasing an additional 1,660 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 19.1% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 21,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,895,000 after purchasing an additional 3,393 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.2 %

ECL opened at $247.32 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $251.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $244.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.69, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $186.13 and a fifty-two week high of $262.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.54 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ECL shares. Bank of America raised Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $251.00 to $272.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Citigroup raised Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $279.87.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total transaction of $25,698,995.82. Following the sale, the insider now owns 29,348,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,079,209,816.61. The trade was a 0.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. This represents a 32.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 838,770 shares of company stock valued at $206,273,864. 0.50% 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.