Webster Bank N. A. Cuts Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Webster Bank N. A. trimmed its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,367 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 815 shares during the quarter. Webster Bank N. A.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $4,069,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 32.7% in 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. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% in 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 period. PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth about $1,262,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $381,552,000 after buying an additional 129,635 shares during the period. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB raised its holdings in Ecolab by 797.3% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,550,000 after acquiring an additional 15,834 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of ECL stock opened at $242.28 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $241.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $245.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $68.60 billion, a PE ratio of 33.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. 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 results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The firm 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on ECL. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.47.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total value of $15,850,657.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 over the last 90 days. Company 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.