DE Burlo Group Inc. Has $517,000 Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

DE Burlo Group Inc. lowered its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,025 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 50 shares during the period. DE Burlo Group Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $517,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Triad Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab in the second quarter worth $26,000. Coastline Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the third quarter valued at $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the second quarter valued at $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the second quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the first quarter valued at $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $306.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.87.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. This represents a 32.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,010,250. The trade was a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 662,228 shares of company stock valued at $163,358,368 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $241.77 on Thursday. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $184.95 and a 1 year high of $262.61. The company has a market capitalization of $68.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.13. The business’s 50-day moving average is $252.00 and its 200-day moving average is $244.19. 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 (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 in the previous year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

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.