Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Sells 1,838 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. cut its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 9.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,038 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,838 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $3,992,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 32.7% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $602,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after purchasing an additional 855 shares during the period. PFW Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 797.3% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,550,000 after purchasing an additional 15,834 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position 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 valued at $381,552,000 after purchasing an additional 129,635 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective 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. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered 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. Finally, UBS Group lowered 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. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.47.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were 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 owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. This trade represents a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $237.63 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $241.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $245.62. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $195.49 and a 12-month high of $262.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The company has a market capitalization of $67.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.33, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.65 dividend. 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 1.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.47%.

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.