Pacer Advisors Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 14.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 33,886 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,220 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $8,652,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ECL. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 16.4% in the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 9,501 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,426,000 after acquiring an additional 1,337 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 25.3% during the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 551,742 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $140,877,000 after purchasing an additional 111,302 shares during the last quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 0.8% in the third quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 904,631 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $230,979,000 after purchasing an additional 7,264 shares during the period. Cornerstone Advisors LLC increased its stake in Ecolab by 11.1% in the third quarter. Cornerstone Advisors LLC now owns 8,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,043,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its position in Ecolab by 14.5% during the third quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 9,324 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,383,000 after buying an additional 1,181 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $306.00 target price on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.20.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total value of $101,023,861.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. The trade was a 32.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 478,355 shares of company stock valued at $117,922,965. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.0 %

ECL stock traded down $2.37 during trading on Friday, reaching $245.24. The stock had a trading volume of 1,026,020 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,085,939. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $252.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $243.69. The company has a market capitalization of $69.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.38, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $182.39 and a 1-year high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS 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 business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

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.