UMB Bank n.a. Buys 855 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 54,640 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 855 shares during the quarter. UMB Bank n.a.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $12,803,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Coastline Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the third quarter worth $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners raised its stake in Ecolab by 62.0% in the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Hara Capital LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab in the third quarter valued at about $40,000. Abound Wealth Management raised its stake in Ecolab by 212.5% in the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC raised its stake in Ecolab by 2,188.9% in the third quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 206 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total value of $101,023,861.12. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares in the company, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $237.63 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $67.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average is $241.96 and its 200-day moving average is $245.55. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $195.49 and a 1-year high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.54 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on ECL shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised 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. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.47.

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.