Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Has $5.58 Million Holdings in Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 20,690 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,056 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $5,575,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Saudi Central Bank bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 202.6% in the 2nd quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 115 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. Capital Analysts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 1st quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Salomon & Ludwin LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Boo Alexander A. De sold 1,422 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.25, for a total transaction of $381,451.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 5,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,535,999.50. This trade represents a 19.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Christophe Beck sold 21,714 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $261.41, for a total value of $5,676,256.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 72,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,989,868.04. The trade was a 23.01% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $275.03 on Thursday. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $221.62 and a 12-month high of $286.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $267.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $268.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Ecolab from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $265.00 to $300.00 in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $299.00 to $291.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.14.

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.