Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Shares Bought by Metis Global Partners LLC

Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 15,743 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 350 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $4,020,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its stake in Ecolab by 32.7% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $602,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its position in Ecolab by 15.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after buying an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 84.3% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,098,000 after buying an additional 6,137 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 50.9% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,171,000 after acquiring an additional 1,660 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 19.1% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 21,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,895,000 after acquiring an additional 3,393 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on ECL shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup upgraded Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.20.

Ecolab Price Performance

Ecolab stock opened at $247.61 on Friday. 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 fifty day simple moving average of $252.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $243.50. The stock has a market cap of $70.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $182.39 and a 12-month high of $262.61.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total value of $15,850,657.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at $2,014,586.40. This trade represents a 32.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 478,355 shares of company stock worth $117,922,965 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab 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.