Brighton Jones LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 58.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,620 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,068 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,514,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Nemes Rush Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 42,899 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,876,000 after acquiring an additional 2,651 shares during the last quarter. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 32.4% during the first quarter. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. now owns 14,005 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,551,000 after buying an additional 3,428 shares in the last quarter. Mirabaud & Cie SA boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.1% during the first quarter. Mirabaud & Cie SA now owns 5,092 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,291,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab during the first quarter worth $284,000. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 1,189.2% during the first quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 144,392 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,606,000 after buying an additional 133,192 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $277.35 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.44. The company has a fifty day moving average of $274.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $265.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $78.66 billion, a PE ratio of 37.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.09. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $221.62 and a fifty-two week high of $286.04.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $4.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.52% and a net margin of 13.59%. 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, research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th were given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 16th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 34.71%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 807 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.28, for a total value of $225,378.96. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 4,326 shares in the company, valued at $1,208,165.28. This represents a 15.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Maclennan bought 600 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $278.51 per share, with a total value of $167,106.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 20,253 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,640,663.03. The trade was a 3.05% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ECL shares. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Monday, October 6th. Erste Group Bank started coverage on shares of Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Oppenheimer raised shares of Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $307.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $290.92.

Ecolab Company Profile

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.