Signal Advisors Wealth LLC Has $517,000 Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Signal Advisors Wealth LLC raised its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 14.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,201 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 278 shares during the period. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $517,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Coastline Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners grew its holdings in Ecolab by 62.0% during the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Hara Capital LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Abound Wealth Management increased its stake in Ecolab by 212.5% in the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC raised its holdings in Ecolab by 2,188.9% in the third quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 206 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL opened at $233.65 on Wednesday. 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 company’s fifty day simple moving average is $242.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $245.57. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $195.49 and a 1-year high of $262.61. The company has a market cap of $66.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.77, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.54 EPS. Ecolab’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 36.47%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ECL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. 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 note on Monday, November 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.47.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.06, for a total transaction of $24,806,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 29,718,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,372,030,892.46. This trade represents a 0.34 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is 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.