Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Purchases 2,108 Shares of Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. grew its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 57.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,784 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,108 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,561,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ECL. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $337,563,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 119.7% during the 2nd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 2,036,339 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $548,671,000 after acquiring an additional 1,109,585 shares during the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its holdings in Ecolab by 27,677.8% during the 1st quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 1,000,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $253,520,000 after buying an additional 996,400 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ecolab by 79.6% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,260,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $319,641,000 after buying an additional 558,947 shares during the period. Finally, OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd raised its holdings in Ecolab by 199.6% during the 1st quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 434,598 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $110,179,000 after buying an additional 289,556 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on ECL. Raymond James Financial began coverage on Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Ecolab from $303.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group decreased their price target on Ecolab from $299.00 to $291.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Barclays increased their price target on Ecolab from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Erste Group Bank began coverage on Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $294.77.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.2%

NYSE:ECL opened at $256.51 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $221.62 and a twelve month high of $286.04. The company has a market cap of $72.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $272.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $266.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83.

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

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 16th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.36%.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan purchased 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $278.51 per share, for a total transaction of $167,106.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 20,253 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,640,663.03. This represents a 3.05% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director 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 is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.