BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. Increases Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 25.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 551,742 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 111,302 shares during the quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. owned about 0.19% of Ecolab worth $140,877,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ECL. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in Ecolab by 5.0% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,558,198 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $608,851,000 after acquiring an additional 122,715 shares during the period. Mirova US LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 2.3% during the second quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 1,975,415 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $470,149,000 after buying an additional 43,553 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 1st quarter valued at $390,687,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,372,379 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $326,626,000 after acquiring an additional 24,648 shares during the period. Finally, abrdn plc lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 1,168,367 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $295,661,000 after purchasing an additional 13,654 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. 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. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $279.87.

Ecolab Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $241.77 on Thursday. 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 $184.95 and a 12-month high of $262.61. The business has a 50 day moving average of $252.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $244.19. The company has a market capitalization of $68.46 billion, a PE ratio of 33.91, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.13.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.54 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total transaction of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,014,586.40. This represents a 32.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 83,873 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.96, for a total transaction of $20,629,403.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,534,868 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,264,396,133.28. This represents a 0.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 662,228 shares of company stock valued at $163,358,368. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.

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