Short Interest in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Rises By 8.0%

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) was the target of a large increase in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,900,000 shares, an increase of 8.0% from the October 31st total of 1,760,000 shares. Currently, 0.8% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 978,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $98,250.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,010,250. This represents a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the company’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 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 834,959 shares of company stock worth $205,323,667. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ecolab

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 32.7% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $602,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its stake in Ecolab by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after buying an additional 855 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its stake in Ecolab by 84.3% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,098,000 after buying an additional 6,137 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in Ecolab by 262.6% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 57,178 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $13,202,000 after buying an additional 41,409 shares during the period. Finally, LVW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $547,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Price Performance

ECL stock traded up $0.63 on Wednesday, hitting $248.80. 211,103 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,086,141. Ecolab has a 1-year low of $188.80 and a 1-year high of $262.61. The stock has a market cap of $70.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $251.17 and a 200-day moving average of $245.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.54 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Ecolab will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ECL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $306.00 target price on shares of Ecolab 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 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $279.87.

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.