ORG Wealth Partners LLC Has $597,000 Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

ORG Wealth Partners LLC reduced its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,544 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 113 shares during the quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $597,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Ecolab by 27,950.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 738,567 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $188,578,000 after acquiring an additional 735,934 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in Ecolab by 295.2% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 791,246 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $188,317,000 after acquiring an additional 591,040 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Ecolab by 580.7% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 303,565 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $72,248,000 after purchasing an additional 258,971 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 750.9% in the 3rd quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 162,607 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $41,519,000 after purchasing an additional 143,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 64.6% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 330,475 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $84,380,000 after buying an additional 129,738 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total value of $17,216,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,176,511,348.95. This represents a 0.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 in the last quarter. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.6 %

ECL stock traded down $3.78 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $230.79. 398,306 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 932,740. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $243.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $245.68. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $195.49 and a 52 week high of $262.61. The company has a market cap of $65.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.54 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.13%. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 36.47%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on ECL. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of 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 research report on Friday, October 18th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ecolab has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.47.

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.