Bradyco Inc. Makes New $724,000 Investment in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Bradyco Inc. bought a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 3,090 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $724,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Andra AP fonden grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 24.4% during the fourth quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 70,400 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $16,496,000 after buying an additional 13,800 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth about $1,885,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in Ecolab by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,521 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $357,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. Callan Family Office LLC boosted its position in Ecolab by 201.9% during the fourth quarter. Callan Family Office LLC now owns 5,142 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,205,000 after acquiring an additional 3,439 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Candriam S.C.A. boosted its position in Ecolab by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Candriam S.C.A. now owns 341,168 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $79,942,000 after acquiring an additional 1,349 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In related news, Director David Maclennan purchased 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $264.51 per share, with a total value of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,964,059.17. This represents a 2.18 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Machiel Duijser sold 5,721 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.04, for a total value of $1,510,572.84. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,774 shares in the company, valued at $996,486.96. This trade represents a 60.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 17,435 shares of company stock worth $4,637,985 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on ECL shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $257.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $288.00.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $266.75 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.05 and a fifty-two week high of $273.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.49 billion, a PE ratio of 36.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.26. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $249.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $249.42.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.97%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.23%.

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.