Russell Investments Group Ltd. Sells 30,347 Shares of Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Russell Investments Group Ltd. trimmed its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 6.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 420,299 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 30,347 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned 0.15% of Ecolab worth $113,210,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Saudi Central Bank bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp raised its holdings in Ecolab by 202.6% in the 2nd quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 115 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. Capital Analysts LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab during the 1st quarter worth $40,000. Finally, Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab during the second quarter valued at about $41,000. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, EVP Boo Alexander A. De sold 1,422 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.25, for a total transaction of $381,451.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 5,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,535,999.50. The trade was a 19.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Christophe Beck sold 21,714 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $261.41, for a total value of $5,676,256.74. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 72,644 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,989,868.04. This represents a 23.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.6%

ECL opened at $275.03 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $77.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $267.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $268.45. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $221.62 and a fifty-two week high of $286.04.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The basic materials company reported $2.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting 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 analysts’ expectations of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.57 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Ecolab has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 2.020-2.120 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 7.480-7.580 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on ECL. Oppenheimer upgraded Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays increased their price objective on Ecolab from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Mizuho set a $315.00 target price on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $307.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Three research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $295.14.

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.