Wealthspire Advisors LLC Sells 2,027 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Wealthspire Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 21.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,332 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,027 shares during the period. Wealthspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,454,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. First Personal Financial Services bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 150.0% during the fourth quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 135 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Finally, Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ECL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Ecolab from $232.00 to $243.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America raised Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $236.88.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE ECL traded up $0.35 on Thursday, hitting $233.58. 721,302 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,207,771. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $156.72 and a 12 month high of $234.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The company has a market cap of $66.70 billion, a PE ratio of 43.26, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $225.18 and a 200-day moving average of $204.71.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.74 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 20.56% and a net margin of 10.01%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.88 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be given a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 18th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other news, Director Arthur J. Higgins sold 4,500 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.52, for a total transaction of $1,023,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,548 shares in the company, valued at $5,812,680.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director David Maclennan bought 650 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $227.37 per share, for a total transaction of $147,790.50. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 17,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,890,528.07. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Arthur J. Higgins sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.52, for a total transaction of $1,023,840.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 25,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,812,680.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.