Carnegie Investment Counsel Purchases 4,971 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Carnegie Investment Counsel raised its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 128,532 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 4,971 shares during the quarter. Ecolab comprises approximately 0.9% of Carnegie Investment Counsel's holdings, making the stock its 26th largest position. Carnegie Investment Counsel's holdings in Ecolab were worth $30,118,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 32.7% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $602,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted 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 buying an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth about $1,262,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 797.3% during the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 17,820 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,550,000 after acquiring an additional 15,834 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 8.7% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $381,552,000 after acquiring an additional 129,635 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock traded down $1.52 during trading on Friday, hitting $237.63. 2,312,522 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,228,484. The company has a market cap of $67.29 billion, a PE ratio of 33.33, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $242.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $245.47. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $195.49 and a twelve month high of $262.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97.

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 the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.54 EPS. Ecolab's revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a boost from Ecolab's previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now owns 30,388,741 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 834,566 shares of company stock valued at $205,225,417 in the last 90 days. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, October 18th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded Ecolab from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $277.47.

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.