Verition Fund Management LLC Sells 5,202 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Verition Fund Management LLC lessened its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 29.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,679 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 5,202 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC's holdings in Ecolab were worth $3,237,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Mather Group LLC. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 43.6% in the second quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 935 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $216,000 after acquiring an additional 284 shares in the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Ecolab by 9.2% during the 2nd quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,880 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $447,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 5.8% in the second quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 7,786 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,853,000 after purchasing an additional 428 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 4.9% in the second quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,788 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $426,000 after buying an additional 84 shares during the period. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 6.8% during the second quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 9,534 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,269,000 after buying an additional 609 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on ECL. Robert W. Baird raised 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 shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group lowered Ecolab from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $279.87.

Ecolab Price Performance

NYSE:ECL traded down $0.59 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $248.27. The company had a trading volume of 310,840 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,084,837. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.30 billion, a PE ratio of 34.81, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $251.05 and a two-hundred day moving average of $245.22. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $189.58 and a one year high of $262.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

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

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other news, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at $6,010,250. This trade represents a 1.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 409,136 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total transaction of $101,023,861.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 30,776,418 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,599,313,132.56. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 834,959 shares of company stock valued at $205,323,667 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company's stock.

Ecolab Company 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.