Sanctuary Advisors LLC Has $8.24 Million Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 16.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 33,596 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,731 shares during the quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $8,241,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Coastline Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab during the second quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the second quarter valued at $33,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the subject of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays upped their price target on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $279.87.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of ECL stock opened at $250.20 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market cap of $70.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.09, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a 50 day moving average of $250.34 and a 200-day moving average of $245.95. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $193.46 and a 12-month high of $262.61.

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

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.47%.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.06, for a total transaction of $24,806,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 29,718,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,372,030,892.46. This represents a 0.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.