Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 64 Shares of Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,363 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 64 shares during the period. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $346,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 27,182.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,813,175 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $459,676,000 after acquiring an additional 1,806,529 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab during the first quarter valued at approximately $337,563,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its stake in Ecolab by 27,677.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 996,400 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 79.6% during the 1st 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, Raiffeisen Bank International AG bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth approximately $79,980,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $293.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Raymond James Financial started coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $307.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Mizuho lifted their price target on Ecolab from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $292.00.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE:ECL opened at $269.32 on Thursday. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $221.62 and a 12-month high of $286.04. The business has a 50 day moving average of $272.58 and a 200-day moving average of $261.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market cap of $76.38 billion, a PE ratio of 35.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan bought 600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were 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 owned 20,253 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,640,663.03. This trade represents a 3.05% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 owned 4,326 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,208,165.28. The trade was a 15.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.