Brooklyn Investment Group Grows Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 31.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 589 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $138,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 27,950.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 738,567 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $188,578,000 after buying an additional 735,934 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 295.2% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 791,246 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $188,317,000 after purchasing an additional 591,040 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 580.7% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 303,565 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $72,248,000 after purchasing an additional 258,971 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank grew its stake in Ecolab by 750.9% during the 3rd quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 162,607 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $41,519,000 after buying an additional 143,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Ecolab by 64.6% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 330,475 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $84,380,000 after buying an additional 129,738 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on ECL shares. BMO Capital Markets upgraded 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. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, October 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.47.

Ecolab Price Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $237.63 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $195.49 and a 12-month high of $262.61. The firm has a market cap of $67.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13. The company’s 50-day moving average is $241.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $245.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The business 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.09%. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.47%.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

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.