Huntington National Bank Increases Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Huntington National Bank grew its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 0.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 101,676 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 638 shares during the quarter. Huntington National Bank’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $25,961,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Triad Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 1st quarter worth $31,000. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter worth $33,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at $6,010,250. This represents 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 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on ECL shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $306.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price target for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.20.

Ecolab Price Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $249.90 on Thursday. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $181.40 and a 12 month high of $262.61. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $252.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $243.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market cap of $70.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $4 billion for 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%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.54 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Ecolab

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.