Whittier Trust Co. Purchases 410 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 7th, 2023

Whittier Trust Co. raised its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL – Get Rating) by 9.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,762 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 410 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $693,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,054,613 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,185,126,000 after purchasing an additional 149,219 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Ecolab by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,544,497 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,780,863,000 after acquiring an additional 146,785 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management SA lifted its position in Ecolab by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Pictet Asset Management SA now owns 3,747,764 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $537,746,000 after acquiring an additional 157,091 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Ecolab by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,079,882 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $543,784,000 after acquiring an additional 32,366 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. lifted its position in Ecolab by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 2,930,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $423,188,000 after acquiring an additional 102,484 shares in the last quarter. 86.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho upped their price objective on Ecolab from $158.00 to $163.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 12th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Ecolab in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 15th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $155.00 to $185.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 15th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $164.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 16th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $171.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Larry L. Berger sold 4,404 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.95, for a total value of $717,631.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,027,423.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $167.04 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $131.04 and a 12 month high of $185.50. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $158.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $151.63. The company has a market cap of $47.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.73, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.00.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 14th. The basic materials company reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.02. Ecolab had a net margin of 7.69% and a return on equity of 18.02%. The firm had revenue of $3.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.69 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 4.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 21st will be given a $0.53 dividend. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 20th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.50%.

Ecolab Profile

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Ecolab, Inc engages in the provision of products and services in the field of water, hygiene, and energy. It operates through the following segments: Global Industrial, Global Institutional & Specialty, Global Energy & Life Science, and Other. The Global Industrial segment consists of the water, food and beverage, paper, and downstream operating segments.