Lake Street Advisors Group LLC Sells 69 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Lake Street Advisors Group LLC lowered its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,721 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 69 shares during the period. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $404,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its position in Ecolab by 206.7% during the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 767,108 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $179,749,000 after buying an additional 516,970 shares during the period. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $80,564,000. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 64.6% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 330,475 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $84,380,000 after purchasing an additional 129,738 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 8.7% in 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, Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in shares of Ecolab during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,276,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director David Maclennan acquired 400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 18,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,964,059.17. This trade represents a 2.18 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Machiel Duijser sold 5,721 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.04, for a total value of $1,510,572.84. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,774 shares in the company, valued at approximately $996,486.96. The trade was a 60.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 17,435 shares of company stock valued at $4,637,985. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $267.10 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $75.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.05 and a 1-year high of $269.23. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $246.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $248.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. Research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.23%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on ECL shares. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Argus raised Ecolab to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.00.

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.