Oakworth Capital Inc. Sells 189 Shares of Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Oakworth Capital Inc. reduced its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 19.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 788 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 189 shares during the quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $212,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 1st quarter valued at $337,563,000. 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 valued at $253,520,000 after buying 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 valued at $319,641,000 after buying an additional 558,947 shares during the last quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 289,556 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,411,233 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,188,736,000 after acquiring an additional 261,489 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 807 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.28, for a total transaction of $225,378.96. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 4,326 shares in the company, valued at $1,208,165.28. The trade was a 15.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director directly owned 11,199 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,171,108.84. This represents a 10.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on ECL. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $293.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Oppenheimer upgraded Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Ecolab from $320.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $300.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $292.00.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE ECL opened at $271.04 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $272.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $261.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $221.62 and a 1 year high of $286.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $76.87 billion, a PE ratio of 36.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.07.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly 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). The firm had revenue of $4.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.52% and a net margin of 13.59%. Ecolab has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 2.020-2.120 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 7.420-7.620 EPS. Analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 16th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.71%.

Ecolab Company 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.