David MacLennan Bought 3.2% More Shares In Ecolab

Potential Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) shareholders may wish to note that the Independent Lead Director, David MacLennan, recently bought US$126k worth of stock, paying US$252 for each share. Although the purchase only increased their holding by 3.2%, it is still a solid purchase in our view.

Our free stock report includes 1 warning sign investors should be aware of before investing in Ecolab. Read for free now.

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Ecolab

The Executive VP & Chief Supply Chain Officer, Machiel Duijser, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$1.5m worth of shares at a price of US$264 each. That means that an insider was selling shares at around the current price of US$256. While we don't usually like to see insider selling, it's more concerning if the sales take place at a lower price. In this case, the big sale took place at around the current price, so it's not too bad (but it's still not a positive). Machiel Duijser was the only individual insider to sell shares in the last twelve months.

You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

View our latest analysis for Ecolab

I will like Ecolab better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of undervalued and small cap stocks with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Insider Ownership

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Insiders own 0.1% of Ecolab shares, worth about US$72m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Ecolab Tell Us?

The recent insider purchase is heartening. On the other hand the transaction history, over the last year, isn't so positive. We don't take much heart from transactions by Ecolab insiders over the last year. But they own a reasonable amount of the company, and there was some buying recently. So they seem pretty well aligned, overall. So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing. At Simply Wall St, we found 1 warning sign for Ecolab that deserve your attention before buying any shares.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions of direct interests only, but not derivative transactions or indirect interests.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.