New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Trims Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lessened its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,080 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,831,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Coastline Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Concord Wealth Partners raised 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 purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Abound Wealth Management raised its position in Ecolab by 212.5% in the 4th quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at $47,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $313.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $284.33.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total value of $17,216,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,176,511,348.95. This represents a 0.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 260,415 shares of company stock valued at $63,544,899. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $264.99 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $213.94 and a fifty-two week high of $268.00. The stock has a market cap of $75.04 billion, a PE ratio of 37.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $242.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $246.45.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. Analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

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.