Paladin Wealth LLC Boosts Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Paladin Wealth LLC raised its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 9.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,708 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 245 shares during the quarter. Paladin Wealth LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $635,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 27,950.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 738,567 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $188,578,000 after acquiring an additional 735,934 shares during the period. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $80,564,000. Eastern Bank lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 750.9% during the third quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 162,607 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $41,519,000 after acquiring an additional 143,497 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in Ecolab by 64.6% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 330,475 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $84,380,000 after purchasing an additional 129,738 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total transaction of $17,216,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,176,511,348.95. This represents a 0.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 360,415 shares of company stock worth $88,350,899. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on ECL shares. UBS Group cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price 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, StockNews.com raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.60.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $245.50 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $241.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $245.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $201.99 and a 12-month high of $262.61.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.65 dividend. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 36.47%.

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.