Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Acquires 971 Shares of Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 14,342 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 971 shares during the period. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $3,864,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Nemes Rush Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 6.6% during the first quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 42,899 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,876,000 after buying an additional 2,651 shares in the last quarter. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 32.4% during the first quarter. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. now owns 14,005 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,551,000 after buying an additional 3,428 shares in the last quarter. Mirabaud & Cie SA increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.1% during the first quarter. Mirabaud & Cie SA now owns 5,092 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,291,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the first quarter worth $284,000. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1,189.2% during the first quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 144,392 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,606,000 after buying an additional 133,192 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ECL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Ecolab from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Mizuho set a $315.00 price objective on Ecolab in a report on Wednesday. Raymond James Financial began coverage on Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on Ecolab from $325.00 to $323.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.77.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $256.51 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $272.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $266.41. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $221.62 and a 1-year high of $286.04. The company has a market cap of $72.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.85, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.09.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly 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. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.55% and a net margin of 12.49%.The firm had revenue of $4.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.12 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.57 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Ecolab has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 2.020-2.120 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 7.480-7.580 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 16th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 807 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was 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 directly owned 4,326 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,208,165.28. This trade represents a 15.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director David Maclennan purchased 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were 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 owned 20,253 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,640,663.03. This trade represents a 3.05% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.