CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC Sells 51 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC cut its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,112 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 51 shares during the quarter. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,198,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 32.7% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $602,000 after buying an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in Ecolab by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,589,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares in the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 797.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,550,000 after purchasing an additional 15,834 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 8.7% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $381,552,000 after purchasing an additional 129,635 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 commented on ECL shares. UBS Group downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective 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 report on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.47.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total value of $101,023,861.12. Following the sale, the insider now owns 30,776,418 shares in the company, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. This trade represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.3 %

Ecolab stock opened at $242.28 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $68.60 billion, a PE ratio of 33.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $195.49 and a 12 month high of $262.61. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $241.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $245.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

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 net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.07%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Ecolab Company 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.