Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Shares Purchased by Lantz Financial LLC

Lantz Financial LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 20.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 964 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the period. Lantz Financial LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $226,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 77.2% during the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 9,393 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,236,000 after purchasing an additional 4,092 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Ecolab by 12.1% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 109,521 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,066,000 after acquiring an additional 11,802 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 159.9% in the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 189,843 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $42,158,000 after acquiring an additional 116,809 shares during the last quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,540 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $843,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MBB Public Markets I LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,401,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 100,000 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.06, for a total value of $24,806,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,718,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,372,030,892.46. The trade was a 0.34 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on ECL shares. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays boosted their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.47.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $242.28 on Friday. 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 has a market capitalization 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 1 year low of $195.49 and a 1 year high of $262.61. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $241.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $245.60.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its 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. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.54 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.07%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.

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.