Oak Ridge Investments LLC Has $11.40 Million Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Oak Ridge Investments LLC increased its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 6.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 48,635 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 2,861 shares during the period. Ecolab accounts for 0.9% of Oak Ridge Investments LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Oak Ridge Investments LLC's holdings in Ecolab were worth $11,396,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Coastline Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners increased its position in Ecolab by 62.0% in the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Hara Capital LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Abound Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 212.5% in the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 2,188.9% during the third quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 206 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total value of $15,850,657.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ECL. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Ecolab from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. 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 report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $277.47.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.6 %

Ecolab stock traded down $1.52 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $237.63. The stock had a trading volume of 2,312,522 shares, compared to its average volume of 953,363. 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. The firm has a market cap of $67.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.33, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.13. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $241.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $245.55.

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

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a boost from Ecolab's previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. 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. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.47%.

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.