World Investment Advisors LLC Boosts Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

World Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 276.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,886 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,462 shares during the quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $3,290,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its stake in 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. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 5.3% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 194,106 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $46,197,000 after purchasing an additional 9,731 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 7.9% in the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 37,867 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,669,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Ecolab by 14.2% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 33,886 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,652,000 after buying an additional 4,220 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total transaction of $25,698,995.82. Following the transaction, the insider now 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 in the last ninety days. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL opened at $250.07 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $193.46 and a 1-year high of $262.61. The stock has a market cap of $70.81 billion, a PE ratio of 35.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $250.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $245.83.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.54 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.04%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on ECL. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.87.

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.