Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Grows Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 20.1% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 477,303 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 79,869 shares during the quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $121,870,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. NBC Securities Inc. raised its stake in Ecolab by 2.3% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,778 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $453,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 15,429 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,940,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,391 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $355,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Bangor Savings Bank grew its position in Ecolab by 17.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 292 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc increased its stake in Ecolab by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc now owns 2,840 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $676,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price target 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 issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $279.87.

Ecolab Price Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $248.95 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $188.32 and a 52 week high of $262.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.49 billion, a PE ratio of 34.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $251.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $244.80.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.54 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $98,250.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at $6,010,250. The trade was a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, 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 sale, the insider now owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 834,959 shares of company stock valued at $205,323,667 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.