Should You Now Consider Selling Your Ecolab (ECL) Shares?

Baron Funds, an asset management firm, published its “Baron Durable Advantage Fund” second quarter 2022 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. Baron Durable Advantage Fund (the “Fund”) declined 15.7% (Institutional Shares) during the second quarter, roughly in line with the 16.1% decline for the S&P 500 Index (the “Index”), the Fund’s benchmark. Year-to-date, the Fund has declined by 24.4% compared to the 20.0% decline for the Index. Go over the fund’s top 5 positions to have a glimpse of its finest picks for 2022.

In its Q2 2022 investor letter, Baron Durable Advantage Fund mentioned Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 1923, Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) is a Saint Paul, Minnesota-based food safety company with a $48.7 billion market capitalization. Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) delivered a -27.14% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -24.87%. The stock closed at $170.92 per share on September 08, 2022.

Here is what Baron Durable Advantage Fund has to say about Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:

“Ecolab Inc., a global leader in water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services, contributed during the quarter despite the decline in its share price namely due to the fortunate timing of our sale. Ecolab faces inflationary headwinds in its business as the cost of the raw materials used to make its products has sharply increased. The company has put in place price increases and energy-related surcharges to mitigate some of these cost pressures, which demonstrate the pricing power of the business. We decided to sell our position and re-allocate to higher conviction ideas.”

Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash

Our calculations show that Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) fell short and didn’t make it on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) was in 43 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2022, compared to 47 funds in the previous quarter. Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) delivered a 3.77% return in the past 3 months.

In May 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in another article. You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2022 Q2 page.

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