Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Has $695,000 Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 11.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,967 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 306 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $695,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Ascent Group LLC lifted its position in Ecolab by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 4,768 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,135,000 after purchasing an additional 308 shares during the period. Creative Planning lifted its position in Ecolab by 7.9% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 38,492 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,161,000 after purchasing an additional 2,817 shares during the period. Quarry LP acquired a new position in Ecolab during the 2nd quarter valued at about $132,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 4,801 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,145,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares during the period. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 351.1% in the 2nd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 12,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,922,000 after acquiring an additional 9,556 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.60.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL opened at $249.71 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $195.49 and a twelve month high of $262.61. The company has a 50 day moving average of $241.23 and a 200-day moving average of $245.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

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 company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.54 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid 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 dividend yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.47%.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total value of $101,023,861.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 30,776,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,599,313,132.56. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.