Short Interest in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Drops By 5.4%

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,760,000 shares, a decline of 5.4% from the October 15th total of 1,860,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 898,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days. Approximately 0.7% of the company's stock are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was 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. This represents a 1.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total value 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. This represents a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 578,355 shares of company stock worth $142,728,965. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 2.3% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,778 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $453,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 0.3% in the third quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 15,429 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,940,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 3.0% in the third quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,391 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $355,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Bangor Savings Bank boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 17.3% in the third quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 292 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $75,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc raised its holdings in Ecolab by 1.6% during the second quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc now owns 2,840 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $676,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on ECL. Citigroup upgraded Ecolab from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays upped their price objective on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $279.87.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.3 %

Ecolab stock traded up $0.73 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $245.97. 774,799 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,084,547. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market cap of $69.65 billion, a PE ratio of 34.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $252.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $243.95. Ecolab has a 12-month low of $182.39 and a 12-month high of $262.61.

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. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The business had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.54 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Ecolab will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.