Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Acquires 158 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 9.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,869 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $371,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in Ecolab by 117.9% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,669,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $282,185,000 after acquiring an additional 903,307 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Ecolab by 19,062.1% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 555,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $110,261,000 after purchasing an additional 552,992 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,875,434,000 after buying an additional 387,545 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 62.1% in the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 984,504 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $166,775,000 after buying an additional 377,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 50.2% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 687,324 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $116,433,000 after buying an additional 229,776 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director Arthur J. Higgins sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.52, for a total value of $1,023,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 25,548 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,812,680.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Director Arthur J. Higgins sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.52, for a total transaction of $1,023,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 25,548 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,812,680.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director David Maclennan acquired 650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $227.37 per share, for a total transaction of $147,790.50. Following the purchase, the director now owns 17,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,890,528.07. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Piper Sandler began coverage on Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $260.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays upgraded Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $236.88.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of ECL opened at $233.34 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $66.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.09. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.72 and a 52 week high of $234.68. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $225.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $204.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.41.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.74 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 20.56% and a net margin of 10.01%. Ecolab’s revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.88 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be given a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 18th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

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.