Eastern Bank Acquires 2,853 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Eastern Bank grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 165,460 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,853 shares during the period. Eastern Bank owned about 0.06% of Ecolab worth $38,771,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Abound Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 212.5% during the 4th quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 43.0% during the 4th quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 1,413 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $331,000 after buying an additional 425 shares in the last quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 31.9% during the 4th quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,644 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $385,000 after buying an additional 398 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 54,642 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,804,000 after buying an additional 3,055 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Graypoint LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 2,225 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $521,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on ECL shares. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 25th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.47.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total transaction of $101,023,861.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,776,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,599,313,132.56. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of ECL traded up $3.27 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $232.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 757,490 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,025,203. The firm has a market capitalization of $65.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.68, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13. The company’s 50-day moving average is $243.00 and its 200-day moving average is $245.65. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $195.49 and a 52-week high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued 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. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The company had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. Ecolab’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

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.