Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. Acquires Shares of 746 Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. bought a new position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 746 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab during the first quarter valued at approximately $337,563,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its holdings in 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 period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Ecolab by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,411,233 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,188,736,000 after acquiring an additional 261,489 shares during the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Ecolab by 43.2% in the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 834,058 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $211,450,000 after purchasing an additional 251,730 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 49.7% during the second quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 741,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $199,723,000 after purchasing an additional 246,237 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Baird R W raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Ecolab from $303.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $307.00 price objective on Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised Ecolab from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $265.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.14.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other news, CEO Christophe Beck sold 21,714 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $261.41, for a total value of $5,676,256.74. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 72,644 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,989,868.04. This trade represents a 23.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $261.73 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The company has a market capitalization of $74.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.07. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $267.64 and a 200 day moving average of $267.86. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $221.62 and a 52 week high of $286.04.

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

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.