Sustainable Growth Advisers LP Sells 10,329 Shares of Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Sustainable Growth Advisers LP cut its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 698,812 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 10,329 shares during the period. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP owned about 0.25% of Ecolab worth $188,288,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Saudi Central Bank bought a new position in Ecolab during the first quarter valued at $25,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the second quarter worth about $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 202.6% during the 2nd quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 115 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC boosted its position in Ecolab by 70.6% in the 1st quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC now owns 145 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Analysts LLC bought a new position in Ecolab in the 1st quarter worth about $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Christophe Beck sold 21,714 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $261.41, for a total transaction of $5,676,256.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 72,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,989,868.04. The trade was a 23.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.16, for a total transaction of $383,398.64. Following the sale, the director owned 11,199 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,171,108.84. This represents a 10.79% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of ECL opened at $258.38 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $73.18 billion, a PE ratio of 37.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.07. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $221.62 and a 12 month high of $286.04. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $268.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $267.67.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The basic materials company reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.07. The firm had revenue of $4.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.12 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.55% and a net margin of 12.49%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business 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. Equities research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the subject of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets set a $307.00 price target on Ecolab and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Evercore ISI upgraded Ecolab from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $265.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Baird R W upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.14.

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.