Should You Invest in Ecolab (ECL)?

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Dividend Strategy” third quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the third quarter, the strategy underperformed the S&P 500 benchmark index. Only the materials sector contributed positively to the strategy’s performance among the 11 sectors. IT and communication services sectors were the major detractors in the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2022.

ClearBridge Investments highlighted stocks like Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the Q3 2022 investor letter. Headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) is a water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services provider. On November 4, 2022, Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) stock closed at $134.75 per share. One-month return of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) was -6.10% and its shares lost 41.59% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) has a market capitalization of $38.402 billion.

ClearBridge Investments made the following comment about Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in its Q3 2022 investor letter:

“We have focused our valuation discipline to reduce exposure to higher-multiple stocks most at risk of multiple compression in the current environment. Along these lines, while we remain constructive on the high returns on invested capital Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) earns in its core business, over the years its diversification has diluted this segment’s importance, and we feel less comfortable defending the position at current valuations.”

Photo by RephiLe water on Unsplash

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 43 hedge fund portfolios held Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) at the end of the second quarter, which was 47 in the previous quarter.

We discussed Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in another article and shared 10 of the largest desalination plants in the US. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2022 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.