Smith Salley Wealth Management Raises Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Smith Salley Wealth Management lifted its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 7.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,991 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the period. Smith Salley Wealth Management’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,638,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 12.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 714,702 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $170,110,000 after purchasing an additional 78,721 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 15.2% during the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 15,032 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,578,000 after purchasing an additional 1,986 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 8,164 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,943,000 after buying an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 11.4% in the 2nd quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 10,117 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,408,000 after buying an additional 1,036 shares during the period. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. increased its stake in Ecolab by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 37,142 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,840,000 after buying an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upped 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. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays increased 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. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.47.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $237.63 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $67.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.33, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $195.49 and a 12 month high of $262.61. 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 company has a 50-day moving average price of $241.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $245.48.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 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 firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.54 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.09%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 36.47%.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total transaction 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 approximately $7,599,313,132.56. This trade represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. Insiders own 0.50% 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.