How Ecolab Inc. (ECL) Stacks Up Against Its Peers

Since Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) has witnessed a decline in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there exists a select few hedgies that decided to sell off their full holdings by the end of the third quarter. Intriguingly, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management cut the biggest investment of the 700 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising about $28.3 million in call options., and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $7.7 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL). We will take a look at Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp (NASDAQ:CTSH), Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS), Anthem Inc (NYSE:ANTM), and American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NYSE:AEP). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to ECL’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 41 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1484 million. That figure was $2407 million in ECL’s case. Anthem Inc (NYSE:ANTM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) is the least popular one with only 31 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) is even less popular than LVS. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.