Citigroup Inc. Has $55.42 Million Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Citigroup Inc. lessened its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 12.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 217,046 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 30,912 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. owned approximately 0.08% of Ecolab worth $55,418,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in Ecolab by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,558,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $608,851,000 after purchasing an additional 122,715 shares during the period. Mirova US LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 2.3% during the second quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 1,975,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $470,149,000 after buying an additional 43,553 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the first quarter valued at about $390,687,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 0.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,403,088 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $358,250,000 after acquiring an additional 8,332 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in Ecolab by 1.8% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,372,379 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $326,626,000 after acquiring an additional 24,648 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on ECL. 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. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $306.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $279.87.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.8 %

ECL opened at $245.30 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $251.75 and its 200-day moving average is $244.37. The company has a market cap of $69.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.40, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $186.00 and a 1-year high of $262.61. 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 posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 29,348,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,079,209,816.61. This represents a 0.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director now owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,010,250. This represents a 1.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 838,770 shares of company stock valued at $206,273,864 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.