Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Short Interest Up 5.3% in November

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 2,000,000 shares, a growth of 5.3% from the November 15th total of 1,900,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 976,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.0 days. Currently, 0.8% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the 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 sale, the insider now owns 30,776,418 shares in the company, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. This represents a 1.31 % 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 have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ecolab

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Coastline Trust Co bought a new stake in Ecolab during the third quarter worth $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the second quarter worth $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Ecolab in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.6 %

ECL stock opened at $250.20 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. Ecolab has a fifty-two week low of $193.46 and a fifty-two week high of $262.61. The business has a 50-day moving average of $250.34 and a 200-day moving average of $246.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during 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 was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 36.47%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on ECL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $279.87.

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.