Wealth Group Ltd. Makes New Investment in Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Wealth Group Ltd. purchased a new position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 1.3% in the second quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 3,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $805,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the period. Forum Financial Management LP boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 2.8% during the first 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. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 5.0% during the first quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC now owns 902 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $229,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 2.0% during the first 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. Finally, Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 3.8% during the first quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 1,170 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $297,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $320.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped 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, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $292.00.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 807 shares of the firm’s 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 owned 4,326 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,208,165.28. This trade represents a 15.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director David Maclennan bought 600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $278.51 per share, with a total value of $167,106.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 20,253 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,640,663.03. The trade was a 3.05% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of ECL opened at $267.53 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $272.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $261.32. The company has a market cap of $75.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.07. 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 Inc. has a twelve month low of $221.62 and a twelve month high of $286.04.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) 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 the consensus estimate 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, analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 16th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.71%.

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.