B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. Acquires 440 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 5,241 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 440 shares during the quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,330,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 30.0% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 776 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $179,000 after purchasing an additional 179 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in Ecolab by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 194,106 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $46,197,000 after buying an additional 9,731 shares during the period. Western Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 27.8% in the second quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,749 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $416,000 after acquiring an additional 380 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Ecolab by 37.8% in the second quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,764 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,848,000 after acquiring an additional 2,131 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.4% during the second quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 73,943 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $17,598,000 after acquiring an additional 1,039 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.7 %

ECL stock opened at $248.39 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $70.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. 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 stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $250.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $246.23. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $193.46 and a 1-year high of $262.61.

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

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.05%. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.47%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ECL. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a 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 report on Monday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, October 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.87.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total value of $15,850,657.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. This trade represents a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company 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.