Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Holdings Lifted by Empirical Finance LLC

Empirical Finance LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.6% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,669 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,213,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ECL. Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the second quarter worth about $27,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in Ecolab in the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ECL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group downgraded Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Bank of America upgraded Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.20.

Ecolab Price Performance

ECL opened at $245.11 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $69.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.38, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $252.35 and a 200-day moving average of $243.69. 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 Inc. has a 12-month low of $182.39 and a 12-month high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In related news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,014,586.40. This represents a 32.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 478,355 shares of company stock valued at $117,922,965. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab 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.