Oak Ridge Investments LLC Acquires 699 Shares of Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Oak Ridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 52,296 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 699 shares during the quarter. Ecolab makes up approximately 1.0% of Oak Ridge Investments LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Oak Ridge Investments LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $14,091,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ECL. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the first quarter valued at approximately $337,563,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. grew its stake in Ecolab by 119.7% during the second quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 2,036,339 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $548,671,000 after acquiring an additional 1,109,585 shares in the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 996,400 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 558,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd grew its stake in 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 valued at $110,179,000 after acquiring an additional 289,556 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $271.80 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $221.62 and a 52-week high of $286.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a fifty day moving average of $274.05 and a 200-day moving average of $263.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.44.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by ($0.01). Ecolab had a net margin of 13.59% and a return on equity of 22.52%. The business had revenue of $4.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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. Equities research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan purchased 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $278.51 per share, for a total transaction of $167,106.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 20,253 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,640,663.03. This represents a 3.05% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.16, for a total transaction of $383,398.64. Following the sale, the director owned 11,199 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,171,108.84. This represents a 10.79% 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 company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Baird R W raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $299.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $307.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $300.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $292.29.

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.