Bristlecone Advisors LLC Has $3.58 Million Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Bristlecone Advisors LLC cut its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 13,277 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 373 shares during the period. Bristlecone Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $3,577,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 1st quarter worth $337,563,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 119.7% during the 2nd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 2,036,339 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $548,671,000 after buying an additional 1,109,585 shares in the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 27,677.8% during the 1st quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 1,000,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $253,520,000 after buying an additional 996,400 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings 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, OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 199.6% during the 1st quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 434,598 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $110,179,000 after buying an additional 289,556 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.16, for a total value of $383,398.64. Following the sale, the director owned 11,199 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,171,108.84. The trade was a 10.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director David Maclennan purchased 600 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $278.51 per share, for a total transaction of $167,106.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 20,253 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,640,663.03. The trade was a 3.05% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Baird R W raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Oppenheimer raised Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Raymond James Financial started coverage on Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $307.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $293.62.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of ECL stock opened at $268.42 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $274.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $265.99. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $221.62 and a 12 month high of $286.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $76.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.84, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced 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 22.52% and a net margin of 13.59%.The firm had revenue of $4.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.12 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.57 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Ecolab has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 2.020-2.120 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 7.480-7.580 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th were given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 16th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 34.71%.

About Ecolab

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.