waypoint wealth counsel Purchases Shares of 757 Ecolab Inc. $ECL

waypoint wealth counsel purchased a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 757 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the first quarter worth $337,563,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 119.7% during the second quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 2,036,339 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $548,671,000 after purchasing an additional 1,109,585 shares during the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 27,677.8% during the first quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 1,000,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $253,520,000 after purchasing an additional 996,400 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 79.6% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,260,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $319,641,000 after purchasing an additional 558,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 199.6% during the first quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 434,598 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $110,179,000 after purchasing an additional 289,556 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer upgraded Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. UBS Group increased their target price on Ecolab from $295.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on Ecolab from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $292.29.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of ECL opened at $271.80 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $221.62 and a 12-month high of $286.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $77.09 billion, a PE ratio of 36.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $274.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $263.11.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.90 by ($0.01). Ecolab had a net margin of 13.59% and a return on equity of 22.52%. The company had revenue of $4.03 billion during 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. As a group, research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 16th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,171,108.84. This represents a 10.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director David Maclennan bought 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $278.51 per share, for a total transaction of $167,106.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 20,253 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,640,663.03. This trade represents a 3.05% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 0.50% 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.