Principal Financial Group Inc. Grows Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 5.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 301,591 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,747 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.11% of Ecolab worth $77,005,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 5,241 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,330,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,947,000. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp boosted its position in Ecolab by 0.6% during the third quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 56,276 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $14,368,000 after acquiring an additional 346 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its stake in Ecolab by 797.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,550,000 after acquiring an additional 15,834 shares during the period. Finally, Arvest Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at $9,830,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of ECL opened at $238.29 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $67.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.42, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. 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 business’s 50 day moving average is $249.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $246.30. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $193.46 and a 52-week high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 36.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total value of $25,698,995.82. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,348,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,079,209,816.61. This trade represents a 0.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ECL. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $280.60.

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.