Jump Financial LLC Buys 24,615 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Jump Financial LLC increased its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 356.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 31,530 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,615 shares during the period. Jump Financial LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $7,388,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ECL. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 796,170 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $203,285,000 after acquiring an additional 69,142 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab by 276.3% during the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 12,886 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,290,000 after purchasing an additional 9,462 shares during the last quarter. Arvest Bank Trust Division acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at $9,830,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted 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, Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 56,276 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $14,368,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on ECL. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Ecolab from $313.00 to $265.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Argus upgraded shares of Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $270.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.67.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director David Maclennan bought 400 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 18,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,964,059.17. This represents a 2.18 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Larry L. Berger sold 10,858 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $266.95, for a total value of $2,898,543.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,744 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,202,860.80. This trade represents a 40.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,435 shares of company stock worth $4,637,985 in the last quarter. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL opened at $238.24 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $67.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. The business has a 50-day moving average of $254.06 and a 200-day moving average of $248.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.05 and a 1 year high of $273.69.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted 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 return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.23%.

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.