Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV Buys New Shares in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV bought a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 1,645 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $420,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Catalytic Wealth RIA LLC increased its position in Ecolab by 187.4% during the third quarter. Catalytic Wealth RIA LLC now owns 2,454 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $627,000 after buying an additional 1,600 shares during the last quarter. Wolverine Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab during the third quarter worth approximately $1,404,000. Kennebec Savings Bank acquired a new position in Ecolab during the third quarter worth approximately $628,000. Arvest Investments Inc. increased its position in Ecolab by 1.1% during the third quarter. Arvest Investments Inc. now owns 3,950 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,009,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Bluffs Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Ecolab by 1.0% during the third quarter. Eagle Bluffs Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,724 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,209,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ECL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, November 4th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible 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 transaction, the director now owns 24,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,010,250. This trade represents a 1.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 478,355 shares of company stock worth $117,922,965 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.9 %

NYSE ECL opened at $247.61 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $252.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $243.50. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $182.39 and a fifty-two week high of $262.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.11 billion, a PE ratio of 34.73, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its 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. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.