PDS Planning Inc Takes Position in Ecolab Inc. $ECL

PDS Planning Inc acquired a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,540 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $415,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ECL. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 164.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $867,000 after buying an additional 2,302 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 21.0% in the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 3,556 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $904,000 after buying an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 40.4% in the first quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 1,667 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $423,000 after buying an additional 480 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 7.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,152 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,813,000 after buying an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 9.9% in the first quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,974 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $501,000 after buying an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.3%

ECL opened at $271.80 on Friday. 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 quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.44. The company has a market capitalization of $77.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $274.05 and a 200-day moving average of $263.04.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by ($0.01). Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.52% and a net margin of 13.59%.The firm had revenue of $4.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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. On average, equities analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 16th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.71%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $299.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Baird R W raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $307.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $292.29.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.16, for a total transaction of $383,398.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 11,199 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,171,108.84. This trade represents a 10.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 807 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.28, for a total value 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 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.