ING Groep NV Decreases Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

ING Groep NV trimmed its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 3.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 133,868 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 5,332 shares during the quarter. ING Groep NV's holdings in Ecolab were worth $34,181,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in Ecolab by 32.7% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $602,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its position in Ecolab by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,589,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its position in Ecolab by 84.3% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,098,000 after acquiring an additional 6,137 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 50.9% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,922 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,171,000 after buying an additional 1,660 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 19.1% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 21,198 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,895,000 after buying an additional 3,393 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 24,041 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,010,250. This trade represents a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 478,355 shares of company stock worth $117,922,965. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ECL traded down $2.29 during trading on Thursday, reaching $247.61. The company had a trading volume of 786,087 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,086,211. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $182.39 and a twelve month high of $262.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.11 billion, a PE ratio of 35.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $252.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $243.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.54 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Ecolab from $240.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $277.20.

Ecolab 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.