Prospera Financial Services Inc Trims Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Prospera Financial Services Inc lowered its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,869 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 156 shares during the period. Prospera Financial Services Inc’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,011,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ECL. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 360.6% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 20,096 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,640,000 after purchasing an additional 15,733 shares in the last quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 31.6% in the 1st quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,788 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $414,000 after purchasing an additional 429 shares in the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 1st quarter valued at about $205,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 8.4% in the 1st quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,609 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $602,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,849 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,120,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab 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 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 $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 is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were 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 owns 24,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,010,250. This represents a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 662,228 shares of company stock valued at $163,358,368 over the last quarter. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the subject of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $306.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.87.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.0 %

Ecolab stock opened at $241.77 on Thursday. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $184.95 and a twelve month high of $262.61. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $252.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $244.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $68.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.