Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Acquires 2,833 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 102,810 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,833 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $26,250,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,589,000 after purchasing an additional 855 shares during the period. LVW Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $547,000. Gradient Investments LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 60,768 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $14,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,744 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in Ecolab by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 194,106 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $46,197,000 after buying an additional 9,731 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, October 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.87.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $250.31 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $189.58 and a twelve month high of $262.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $250.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $245.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.88 billion, a PE ratio of 35.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. 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 1.04%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 31.98%.

Insider Activity

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,176,511,348.95. This represents a 0.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $98,250.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,010,250. This trade represents a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 834,959 shares of company stock worth $205,323,667. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab 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.