Brophy Wealth Management LLC Takes $881,000 Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Brophy Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 3,450 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $881,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 32.7% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $602,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased 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 worth $1,589,000 after purchasing an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC increased 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 buying an additional 4,744 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased 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 during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 2,772 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ECL. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays upped their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, UBS Group cut 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. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $279.87.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $6,010,250. The trade was a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total value of $17,216,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 29,178,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,176,511,348.95. The trade was a 0.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 834,959 shares of company stock valued at $205,323,667. Insiders own 0.04% of the company's stock.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of ECL stock traded down $1.98 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $247.42. 758,511 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,084,703. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $191.53 and a 52-week high of $262.61. The stock has a market cap of $70.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The stock's fifty day moving average is $250.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $245.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.54 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be given a $0.65 dividend. This is a positive change from Ecolab's previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.