Friedenthal Financial Invests $77,000 in Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 287 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $77,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the 1st quarter valued at $337,563,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its position in Ecolab by 27,677.8% in the 1st quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 1,000,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $253,520,000 after purchasing an additional 996,400 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Ecolab by 79.6% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,260,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $319,641,000 after purchasing an additional 558,947 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd grew its position in Ecolab by 199.6% in the 1st quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 434,598 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $110,179,000 after purchasing an additional 289,556 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Ecolab by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,411,233 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,188,736,000 after purchasing an additional 261,489 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.3%

NYSE ECL opened at $278.80 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $79.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.22, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.09. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $221.62 and a one year high of $286.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The business’s fifty day moving average is $273.25 and its 200-day moving average is $262.56.

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 firm had revenue of $4.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Oppenheimer upgraded Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Mizuho raised 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. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Ecolab from $307.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Three equities research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $292.29.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In related 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 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 ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated 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. 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.