Avestar Capital LLC Has $346,000 Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Avestar Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 9.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,476 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 125 shares during the quarter. Avestar Capital LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $346,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. NBC Securities Inc. increased its position in Ecolab by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,778 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $453,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC grew its holdings in Ecolab by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 15,429 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,940,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Ecolab by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,391 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $355,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Invesco LLC grew its holdings in Ecolab by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Invesco LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $250,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Ecolab by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,097 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $726,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $284.33.

Ecolab Stock Performance

ECL opened at $264.99 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 company’s fifty day moving average price is $242.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $246.33. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $213.94 and a 1-year high of $268.00. The company has a market cap of $75.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.17, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. On average, analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.98%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total value of $25,698,995.82. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 29,348,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,079,209,816.61. This represents a 0.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 260,415 shares of company stock worth $63,544,899. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.