746 Shares in Ecolab Inc. $ECL Bought by Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc.

Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. purchased a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 746 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $337,563,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its stake in Ecolab by 119.7% during the 2nd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 2,036,339 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $548,671,000 after purchasing an additional 1,109,585 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 worth $6,188,736,000 after buying an additional 261,489 shares during the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 43.2% during the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 834,058 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $211,450,000 after buying an additional 251,730 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 49.7% during the second quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 741,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $199,723,000 after buying an additional 246,237 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $261.73 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $267.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $267.86. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $221.62 and a fifty-two week high of $286.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $74.13 billion, a PE ratio of 37.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.70.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The basic materials company reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07. The company had revenue of $4.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.12 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.55% and a net margin of 12.49%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.57 EPS. 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, research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Ecolab from $303.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Mizuho set a $315.00 price objective on Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Barclays lifted their target price on Ecolab from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Erste Group Bank started coverage on shares of Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets set a $307.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $295.14.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, CEO Christophe Beck sold 21,714 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $261.41, for a total transaction of $5,676,256.74. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 72,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,989,868.04. This trade represents a 23.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.