Spartan Planning & Wealth Management Invests $228,000 in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Spartan Planning & Wealth Management bought a new position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $228,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ECL. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. Concord Wealth Partners increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 62.0% during the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab during the third quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 2,188.9% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 206 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was 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 directly owns 30,388,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.6 %

Ecolab stock traded up $1.37 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $232.75. 423,896 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 868,173. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $193.46 and a 52-week high of $262.61. The company has a market capitalization of $65.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.64, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $244.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $245.92. 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 results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The company had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.54 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.12%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 36.47%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on ECL shares. StockNews.com cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.27.

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.