11,249 Shares in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Purchased by B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management

B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 11,249 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $2,636,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Ecolab by 12.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 714,702 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $170,110,000 after buying an additional 78,721 shares in the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Ecolab by 22.3% in the 2nd quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,190 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $759,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab by 2.4% in the second quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 34,079 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $8,111,000 after acquiring an additional 806 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its position in 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 valued at $3,578,000 after acquiring an additional 1,986 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC grew its position in Ecolab by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 8,164 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,943,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417. 0.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ecolab from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 25th. UBS Group downgraded shares of 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. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $277.47.

Ecolab Stock Performance

ECL traded down $1.52 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $237.63. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,312,522 shares, compared to its average volume of 953,363. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $241.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $245.55. The stock has a market cap of $67.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.33, a PEG ratio of 2.04 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 Inc. has a twelve month low of $195.49 and a twelve month high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion for 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 company's revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.54 EPS. Research analysts expect 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 was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.09%. This is a boost from Ecolab's previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.

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.