Barclays PLC Decreases Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Barclays PLC decreased its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 28.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 569,594 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 226,576 shares during the period. Barclays PLC owned 0.20% of Ecolab worth $133,468,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at $308,000. Optimize Financial Inc bought a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at $231,000. Townsquare Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 15,039 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,524,000 after acquiring an additional 1,536 shares during the period. Crux Wealth Advisors purchased a new position in Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth about $205,000. Finally, Petros Family Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at about $259,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ecolab from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Ecolab from $302.00 to $285.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Ecolab from $295.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. UBS Group raised their price objective on Ecolab from $257.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $282.33.

Insider Activity

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan bought 400 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,767 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,964,059.17. This represents a 2.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 856 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.37, for a total value of $228,868.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,911.80. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 17,435 shares of company stock valued at $4,637,985. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL stock traded down $5.24 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $233.49. The stock had a trading volume of 99,759 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,411,448. The stock has a market capitalization of $66.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.64, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $253.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $248.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $217.27 and a one year high of $273.69.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.42% and a return on equity of 22.50%. Equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.11%. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.23%.

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.