Corundum Group Inc. Buys 2,444 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Corundum Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 47.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,548 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,444 shares during the quarter. Corundum Group Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,769,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of ECL. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 32.7% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $602,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in Ecolab by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after buying an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its position in Ecolab by 797.3% during the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,550,000 after buying an additional 15,834 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in Ecolab by 8.7% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $381,552,000 after acquiring an additional 129,635 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $237.63 on Monday. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $195.49 and a 1 year high of $262.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The company has a 50-day moving average of $241.96 and a 200 day moving average of $245.55. The firm has a market cap of $67.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.33, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.54 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total transaction of $17,216,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 29,178,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,176,511,348.95. This represents a 0.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. Insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on ECL. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, November 4th. StockNews.com cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 25th. Barclays boosted their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded 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 report on Friday, October 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.47.

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.