Accredited Investors Inc. Has $628,000 Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Accredited Investors Inc. raised its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 48.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,459 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 802 shares during the quarter. Accredited Investors Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $628,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the first quarter worth $390,687,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Ecolab by 27,950.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 738,567 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $188,578,000 after purchasing an additional 735,934 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 295.2% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 791,246 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $188,317,000 after purchasing an additional 591,040 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 580.7% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 303,565 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $72,248,000 after buying an additional 258,971 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 136.0% in the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 359,106 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $85,467,000 after buying an additional 206,973 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Trading Down 1.0 %

ECL stock opened at $245.24 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $252.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $243.82. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $182.39 and a fifty-two week high of $262.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced 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 company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America upgraded Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total value of $15,850,657.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 478,355 shares of company stock valued at $117,922,965. 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.