Retirement Systems of Alabama Sells 568 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Retirement Systems of Alabama cut its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 55,497 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 568 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $14,170,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position 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 valued at $602,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its position in Ecolab by 15.9% in 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 period. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in Ecolab by 5.3% in the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 194,106 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $46,197,000 after acquiring an additional 9,731 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its position in Ecolab by 7.9% in the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 37,867 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,669,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Ecolab by 14.2% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 33,886 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,652,000 after acquiring an additional 4,220 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares in the company, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ECL. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $306.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight 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 has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $279.87.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of ECL opened at $250.20 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $193.46 and a 12-month high of $262.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.85 billion, a PE ratio of 35.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $250.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $246.09.

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

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.47%.

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.