Patten Group Inc. Has $2.13 Million Stake in Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Patten Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,897 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the quarter. Patten Group Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,128,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,411,233 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,188,736,000 after buying an additional 261,489 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 2.3% in the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,089,226 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,036,485,000 after buying an additional 93,409 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 4.0% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 3,805,952 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $964,885,000 after buying an additional 145,902 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 0.8% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 3,577,229 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $906,900,000 after buying an additional 27,619 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 6.8% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,718,340 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $689,154,000 after buying an additional 173,298 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $3,171,108.84. This trade represents a 10.79% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Maclennan bought 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $278.51 per share, for a total transaction of $167,106.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 20,253 shares in the company, valued at $5,640,663.03. This represents a 3.05% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ecolab Price Performance

Ecolab stock opened at $278.09 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $78.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.13, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.09. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $221.62 and a 52-week high of $286.04. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $274.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $264.23. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results 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). The business had revenue of $4.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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. On average, equities analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ECL. Baird R W raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Ecolab from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Oppenheimer upgraded Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Ecolab from $300.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Monday, October 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $290.92.

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.