Park National Corp OH Lowers Stake in Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Park National Corp OH cut its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 18.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,150 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 3,451 shares during the quarter. Park National Corp OH’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $4,149,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Ecolab in the second quarter valued at about $847,544,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 119.7% in 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 buying an additional 1,109,585 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 115.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 727,370 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $193,753,000 after buying an additional 389,981 shares during the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Ecolab by 43.2% during the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 834,058 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $211,450,000 after acquiring an additional 251,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ecolab by 1.0% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,662,213 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,644,987,000 after acquiring an additional 250,980 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan purchased 750 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 8th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $257.60 per share, with a total value of $193,200.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 23,035 shares in the company, valued at $5,933,816. This trade represents a 3.37% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Boo Alexander A. De sold 1,422 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.25, for a total value of $381,451.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 5,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,535,999.50. The trade was a 19.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ECL. Erste Group Bank assumed coverage on Ecolab in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Robert W. Baird set a $307.00 price target on Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $325.00 to $323.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $265.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, Mizuho set a $315.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.14.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.9%

Ecolab stock opened at $261.14 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $266.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $268.99. The company has a market capitalization of $73.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.98. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $221.62 and a 52 week high of $286.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The basic materials company reported $2.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07. Ecolab had a net margin of 12.49% and a return on equity of 22.55%. The company had revenue of $4.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.12 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.57 EPS. Ecolab’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 and its FY 2025 guidance at 7.480-7.580 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 16th will be given a dividend of $0.73 per share. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 16th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 41.95%.

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.