West Michigan Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. $ECL

West Michigan Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,136 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 119 shares during the quarter. West Michigan Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $307,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 164.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $867,000 after purchasing an additional 2,302 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 7.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,152 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,813,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its stake in Ecolab by 20.1% during the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,338,000 after purchasing an additional 884 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 178.0% during the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 556 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $141,000 after purchasing an additional 356 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pure Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the first quarter worth about $249,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan bought 600 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was acquired at an average price 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,640,663.03. The trade was a 3.05% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.16, for a total value of $383,398.64. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 11,199 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,171,108.84. The trade was a 10.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE ECL opened at $277.35 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $78.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.03, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.09. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $221.62 and a twelve month high of $286.04. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $274.37 and a 200 day moving average of $264.98.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 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 firm had revenue of $4.03 billion for 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. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Baird R W upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Erste Group Bank initiated coverage on Ecolab in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday. UBS Group upped their target price on Ecolab from $295.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $290.92.

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.