Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Purchases New Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 6,696 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $1,710,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 32.7% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its position in 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 worth $1,589,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares in the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 60,768 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $14,463,000 after acquiring an additional 4,744 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 194,106 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $46,197,000 after purchasing an additional 9,731 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 37,867 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $9,669,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on ECL shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group lowered Ecolab from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $276.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, October 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ecolab has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $279.87.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $98,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 24,041 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,010,250. This represents a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total value of $25,698,995.82. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,348,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,079,209,816.61. The trade was a 0.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 834,959 shares of company stock valued at $205,323,667 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company's stock.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.6 %

Ecolab stock traded down $1.55 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $245.50. 966,686 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,086,480. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $192.37 and a 1-year high of $262.61. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $250.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $245.70. The stock has a market cap of $69.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13. 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 - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS 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 analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is an increase from Ecolab's previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.06%. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

About Ecolab

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.