Arvest Bank Trust Division Purchases Shares of 38,501 Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Arvest Bank Trust Division purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 38,501 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $9,830,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in Ecolab by 32.7% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $602,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,589,000 after purchasing an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 60,768 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $14,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,744 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in Ecolab by 5.3% in the second 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 during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Ecolab by 7.9% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 37,867 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $9,669,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total value of $101,023,861.12. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 30,776,418 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,599,313,132.56. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417 over the last three months. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock traded up $3.45 during trading on Thursday, hitting $248.91. The stock had a trading volume of 929,849 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,085,818. 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 $193.46 and a 12 month high of $262.61. The firm has a market cap of $70.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13. The business's 50-day moving average is $250.40 and its 200 day moving average is $245.70.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analysts' expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.54 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business 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 $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 yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.