J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG Decreases Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Key Points

• J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG reduced its stake in Ecolab Inc. by 15.3% in the first quarter, holding approximately $55.39 million worth of shares after selling 39,356 shares.
• Multiple analysts have recently upgraded their ratings on Ecolab, with Barclays lowering its price target from $300.00 to $275.00, while others have set a target price averaging $290.71.
• Ecolab recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.65 per share, translating to an annualized dividend of $2.60 and a yield of 1.0%.

J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG decreased its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL - Free Report) by 15.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 218,482 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 39,356 shares during the quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG owned approximately 0.08% of Ecolab worth $55,390,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 6.7% in the first quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 154,806 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $39,154,000 after buying an additional 9,764 shares during the period. Mirabaud & Cie SA raised its stake in Ecolab by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Mirabaud & Cie SA now owns 5,092 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,291,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp raised its stake in Ecolab by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp now owns 20,659 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $5,237,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the period. Blueshift Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Ecolab by 55.1% during the 1st quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC now owns 3,140 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $796,000 after purchasing an additional 1,115 shares during the period. Finally, Commerce Bank raised its stake in Ecolab by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 32,901 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $8,341,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan bought 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $251.75 per share, for a total transaction of $125,875.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 19,465 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,900,313.75. This represents a 2.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $260.00 price objective on Ecolab and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Ecolab from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on Ecolab from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $290.71.

Ecolab Trading Up 1.2%

ECL traded up $3.05 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $264.06. 716,935 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,185,174. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $266.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $256.73. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $221.62 and a 52-week high of $274.17. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.90 billion, a PE ratio of 35.26, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.06.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by ($0.01). Ecolab had a net margin of 13.59% and a return on equity of 22.52%. The business had revenue of $4.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.03 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 17th. Ecolab's dividend payout ratio is currently 34.71%.

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.