Mizuho Markets Americas LLC Decreases Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Mizuho Markets Americas LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 15.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 23,955 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 4,329 shares during the period. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC's holdings in Ecolab were worth $6,116,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Coastline Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ECL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the company from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. 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 research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $306.00 target price on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $277.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $98,250.00. Following the sale, 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 through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the business'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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 478,355 shares of company stock valued at $117,922,965. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company's stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock traded down $2.37 on Friday, hitting $245.24. 1,026,020 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,085,939. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $252.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $243.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.44 billion, a PE ratio of 34.38, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $182.39 and a 1 year high of $262.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. Ecolab's quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.54 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

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.