Genus Capital Management Inc. Acquires 4,652 Shares of Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Genus Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 94.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,557 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 4,652 shares during the quarter. Genus Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $2,575,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ECL. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 164.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $867,000 after buying an additional 2,302 shares in the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 18.4% during the 1st quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,513 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,144,000 after buying an additional 700 shares in the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 347.4% during the 1st quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 2,966 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $751,000 after buying an additional 2,303 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 79.6% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,260,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $319,641,000 after buying an additional 558,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Personal CFO Solutions LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 30.5% during the 1st quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 3,056 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $775,000 after buying an additional 714 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer upgraded Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Erste Group Bank assumed coverage on Ecolab in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Barclays upped their price objective on Ecolab from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on Ecolab from $299.00 to $291.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $295.14.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan purchased 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $278.51 per share, for a total transaction of $167,106.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 20,253 shares in the company, valued at $5,640,663.03. This represents a 3.05% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 807 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.28, for a total value of $225,378.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 4,326 shares in the company, valued at $1,208,165.28. This represents a 15.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.3%

Ecolab stock opened at $258.27 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $271.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $266.89. 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 Inc. has a one year low of $221.62 and a one year high of $286.04. The stock has a market cap of $73.25 billion, a PE ratio of 37.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.09.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The basic materials company reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.55% and a net margin of 12.49%.The company had revenue of $4.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.12 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.57 earnings per share. The firm’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. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 16th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.36%.

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.