Trust Co. of Vermont Sells 2,496 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Trust Co. of Vermont decreased its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECLFree Report) by 3.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 69,268 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,496 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Vermont’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $16,231,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Ecolab by 12.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 714,702 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $170,110,000 after acquiring an additional 78,721 shares during the period. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Ecolab by 22.3% during the 2nd quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,190 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $759,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 2.4% in the second quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 34,079 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,111,000 after acquiring an additional 806 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 15.2% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 15,032 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,578,000 after acquiring an additional 1,986 shares during the period. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 25th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.47.

Get Our Latest Report on Ecolab

Insider Buying and Selling 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 shares were sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total transaction of $101,023,861.12. Following the transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE ECL traded down $1.52 on Friday, hitting $237.63. 2,312,522 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 953,363. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $195.49 and a 52-week high of $262.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $242.20 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $245.47.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECLGet Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $4 billion for 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.54 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.09%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.47%.

Ecolab Profile

(Free Report)

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.

See Also

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Ecolab (NYSE:ECL)

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