Friedenthal Financial Purchases New Shares in Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 287 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $77,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ECL. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 164.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $867,000 after buying an additional 2,302 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital grew its stake in Ecolab by 8.0% during the first quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 2,961 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $697,000 after buying an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 19.8% during the first quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 1,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $417,000 after buying an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 15.6% during the first quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 5,576 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,414,000 after buying an additional 754 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 11.2% during the first quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 10,393 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,635,000 after buying an additional 1,048 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on shares of Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Baird R W raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Oppenheimer raised shares of Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $307.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $292.29.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan bought 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,640,663.03. This trade represents a 3.05% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 807 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.28, for a total transaction of $225,378.96. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 4,326 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,208,165.28. This represents a 15.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $278.80 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $273.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $262.56. The firm has a market cap 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. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $221.62 and a 1 year 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.

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

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. 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 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.