Pittenger & Anderson Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. raised its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 18,470 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 413 shares during the period. Pittenger & Anderson Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $4,977,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ECL. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $337,563,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted 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 during the period. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 27,677.8% in 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. lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 79.6% in 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 lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 199.6% in 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 hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Ecolab from $300.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Mizuho raised their price target on Ecolab from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Baird R W raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Ecolab from $307.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Three 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $290.92.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $280.31 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $274.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $264.13. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $221.62 and a twelve month high of $286.04. The company has a market capitalization of $79.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.09.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by ($0.01). Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.52% and a net margin of 13.59%.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 expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 16th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 34.71%.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In related news, Director David Maclennan purchased 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $278.51 per share, with a total value of $167,106.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 20,253 shares in the company, valued at $5,640,663.03. The trade was a 3.05% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.16, for a total value 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 trade represents a 10.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.50% 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.