ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Sustainability Leaders Strategy” third quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The strategy underperformed its benchmark, the Russell 3000 Index, in the quarter.  The strategy...

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Sustainability Leaders Strategy” third quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The strategy underperformed its benchmark, the Russell 3000 Index, in the quarter.  The strategy gained two out of 10 sectors in which it invested during the quarter, on an absolute basis. Communication services and consumer discretionary sectors were the sole contributors while the information technology (IT) and utilities sectors detracted. Overall stock selection and sector allocation detracted on a relative basis. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023.

ClearBridge Sustainability Leaders Strategy highlighted stocks like Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the third quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) provides products and services for water, hygiene, and infection prevention. On December 27, 2023, Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) stock closed at $199.39 per share. One-month return of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) was 4.00%, and its shares gained 34.99% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) has a market capitalization of $56.854 billion.

ClearBridge Sustainability Leaders Strategy made the following comment about Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in its Q3 2023 investor letter:

“Long-time ClearBridge holding Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) stands out as a responsible steward of water resources and a company able to reduce impact from use of water across the economy. Ecolab offers water-saving solutions for laundries used by health care, hospitality and food and beverage industries. Products and services include industrial water pre-treatment systems, industrial water reuse, water-efficient conveyor lubrication systems and wastewater treatment. For a major hotel chain, Ecolab’s chemical product delivery service replaces single-use drums of cleaning chemical, reducing waste and improving work safety, while its warewashing and housekeeping solutions reduce wash time, water usage and water temperature for food prep wares as well as plastic packaging used in housekeeping services. Ecolab estimates 57 million gallons of water savings as well as 1,400 metric tons of GHG emissions annually for the hotel chain as a result.

Ecolab has committed to helping its customers conserve 300 billion gallons of water a year, equivalent to the annual drinking water needs of 1 billion people by 2030, through reducing water withdrawal needs in customers’ operations. Separately, Ecolab also has a target to restore >50% of its absolute water withdrawal at high-risk sites through collaboration with NGOs and local communities. Ecolab is also a co-founder of the Water Resilience Coalition, a CEO-led movement and part of the United Nations Global Compact aiming to preserve the world’s freshwater resources through action in water-stressed basins.”

A technician wearing a protective suit in a water treatment plant.

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 53 hedge fund portfolios held Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) at the end of third quarter which was 56 in the previous quarter.

We discussed Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in another article and shared the list of centi-billionaire Bill Gates’ top dividend stocks. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2023 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.

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