Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. Has $902,000 Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,534 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 267 shares during the period. Cahill Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $902,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Coastline Trust Co bought a new position in Ecolab during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on ECL shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $279.87.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of ECL opened at $245.30 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.40, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.00 and a 52 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 has a fifty day moving average of $251.75 and a 200-day moving average of $244.37.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. The trade was a 32.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total value of $17,216,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,176,511,348.95. The trade was a 0.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 838,770 shares of company stock valued at $206,273,864 in the last ninety days. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ecolab Company 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.