Bank of Montreal Can Cuts Holdings in Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Bank of Montreal Can trimmed its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 248,711 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 10,120 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can owned 0.09% of Ecolab worth $67,013,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC now owns 2,995 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $807,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 3,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $805,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Eads & Heald Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Eads & Heald Wealth Management now owns 7,534 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,030,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Forum Financial Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 1,449 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $367,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC now owns 2,199 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $525,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ECL shares. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $325.00 to $323.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Erste Group Bank began coverage on shares of Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Mizuho set a $315.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Raymond James Financial began coverage on shares of Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Ecolab from $299.00 to $291.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.14.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $258.27 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $271.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $266.89. The company has a market cap of $73.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.11, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.09. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $221.62 and a 12-month high of $286.04.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The basic materials company reported $2.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07. The business had revenue of $4.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.12 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 12.49% and a return on equity of 22.55%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.57 EPS. Ecolab has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 2.020-2.120 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 7.480-7.580 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 16th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 37.36%.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan bought 600 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $278.51 per share, with a total value of $167,106.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 20,253 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,640,663.03. This represents a 3.05% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 807 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.28, for a total transaction 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab 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.