Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp Makes New $349,000 Investment in Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,297 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $349,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab during the first quarter valued at approximately $337,563,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,109,585 shares during the period. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 27,677.8% during 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 in the last quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd boosted its holdings in 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 worth $110,179,000 after buying an additional 289,556 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $6,188,736,000 after buying an additional 261,489 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of the company’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 sale, the director directly owned 11,199 shares in the company, valued at $3,171,108.84. This represents a 10.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 807 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.28, for a total value of $225,378.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 4,326 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,208,165.28. This trade represents a 15.72% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ECL. Erste Group Bank began coverage on Ecolab in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets set a $307.00 price target on Ecolab and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $303.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Citigroup lowered their target price 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. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Ecolab from $299.00 to $291.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.14.

Ecolab Price Performance

Ecolab stock opened at $255.86 on Friday. 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 1.12, a current ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $270.19 and its 200 day moving average is $267.11. The company has a market cap of $72.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.76, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.07.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The basic materials company reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07. The firm had revenue of $4.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.12 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 12.49% and a return on equity of 22.55%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm 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. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.