Ecolab Inc. $ECL Shares Purchased by Mirova US LLC

Mirova US LLC increased its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,052,803 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 73,628 shares during the quarter. Ecolab makes up 5.7% of Mirova US LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Mirova US LLC owned 0.72% of Ecolab worth $553,107,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the first quarter worth about $337,563,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its position in Ecolab by 27,677.8% in the first quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 1,000,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $253,520,000 after purchasing an additional 996,400 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Ecolab by 79.6% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,260,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $319,641,000 after purchasing an additional 558,947 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd increased its position in Ecolab by 199.6% in the first quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 434,598 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $110,179,000 after purchasing an additional 289,556 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Ecolab by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,411,233 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,188,736,000 after purchasing an additional 261,489 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan bought 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $278.51 per share, with a total value of $167,106.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 20,253 shares in the company, valued at $5,640,663.03. This represents a 3.05% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.16, for a total value of $383,398.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 11,199 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,171,108.84. This represents a 10.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer upgraded Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Mizuho raised their target price on Ecolab from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Ecolab from $295.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $292.29.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.3%

NYSE:ECL opened at $278.80 on Wednesday. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $221.62 and a fifty-two week high of $286.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $79.07 billion, a PE ratio of 37.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.09. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $273.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $262.56.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.90 by ($0.01). Ecolab had a net margin of 13.59% and a return on equity of 22.52%. The business had revenue of $4.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 2.020-2.120 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 7.420-7.620 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 16th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.71%.

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.