Ecolab Inc. $ECL Shares Acquired by Country Club Bank

Country Club Bank increased its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,073 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 72 shares during the period. Country Club Bank’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $554,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the first quarter worth approximately $337,563,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 27,677.8% during the first quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 1,000,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $253,520,000 after buying an additional 996,400 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 79.6% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,260,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $319,641,000 after buying an additional 558,947 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 199.6% during the first quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 434,598 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $110,179,000 after buying an additional 289,556 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,411,233 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,188,736,000 after buying an additional 261,489 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ecolab Price Performance

ECL stock opened at $278.80 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $79.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.22, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.09. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $221.62 and a twelve month high of $286.04. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $273.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $262.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.90 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $4.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.59% and a return on equity of 22.52%. Ecolab has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 2.020-2.120 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 7.420-7.620 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 16th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.71%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.16, for a total transaction of $383,398.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 11,199 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,171,108.84. This trade represents a 10.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director David Maclennan purchased 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $278.51 per share, with a total value of $167,106.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 20,253 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,640,663.03. This trade represents a 3.05% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on ECL. Baird R W upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Raymond James Financial began coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Tuesday, August 26th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $299.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $307.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $292.29.

About Ecolab

Ecolab Inc provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Global Industrial; Global Institutional & Specialty; and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences. The Global Industrial segment offers water treatment and process applications, and cleaning and sanitizing solutions to manufacturing, food and beverage processing, transportation, chemical, metals and mining, power generation, pulp and paper, commercial laundry, petroleum, refining, and petrochemical industries.