Brookstone Capital Management Boosts Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Brookstone Capital Management lifted its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 43.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,413 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 425 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $331,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ECL. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 12.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 714,702 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $170,110,000 after buying an additional 78,721 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 15.2% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 15,032 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,578,000 after buying an additional 1,986 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.0% in the second quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 8,164 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,943,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 11.4% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 10,117 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,408,000 after acquiring an additional 1,036 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.4% in the second quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 37,142 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,840,000 after acquiring an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.6 %

NYSE:ECL opened at $237.63 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.29 billion, a PE ratio of 33.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $241.96 and a 200-day moving average of $245.48. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $195.49 and a 52 week high of $262.61. 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 (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The business had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.09%. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 36.47%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. 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 research note on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.47.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction 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 approximately $7,408,775,055.80. This trade represents a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 in the last three months. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.