SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC Purchases 92 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECLFree Report) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,944 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 92 shares during the quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $456,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Biltmore Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Biltmore Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,311 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $541,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 14.5% in the fourth quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 2,201 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $517,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares during the period. Ayrshire Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Ayrshire Capital Management LLC now owns 25,790 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,043,000 after buying an additional 429 shares during the period. Tealwood Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 607.9% in the 4th quarter. Tealwood Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,681 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,800,000 after buying an additional 6,596 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,262,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on ECL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Morgan Stanley lifted 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. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, UBS Group lowered Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.47.

View Our Latest Research Report on ECL

Ecolab Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE ECL opened at $239.04 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. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $195.49 and a 52 week high of $262.61. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $242.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $245.51. The company has a market cap of $67.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECLGet Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The business’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. 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%. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 36.47%.

Ecolab Company 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.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Ecolab (NYSE:ECL)

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