Dakota Wealth Management Trims Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Dakota Wealth Management reduced its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 11.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,607 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 606 shares during the period. Dakota Wealth Management’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,080,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 581 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in Ecolab by 15.9% during the third 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 during the period. PFW Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 797.3% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,550,000 after acquiring an additional 15,834 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, October 18th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.47.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of ECL stock opened at $242.28 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $195.49 and a fifty-two week high of $262.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $241.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $245.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $68.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.98, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. This trade represents a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible 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.

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.