10,147 Shares in Ecolab Inc. $ECL Purchased by Sawyer & Company Inc

Sawyer & Company Inc acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 10,147 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,786,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ECL. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,422,340,000. Corient Private Wealth LP acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 2nd quarter worth about $244,381,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at about $578,923,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at about $495,109,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at about $413,381,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ECL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer upgraded Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $320.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, July 17th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Ecolab from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Ecolab from $275.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Ecolab from $295.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Ecolab from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.50.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ECL traded up $0.94 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $289.10. 437,098 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,449,843. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $279.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $272.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.57, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $81.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.87. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $243.15 and a twelve month high of $309.27.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The basic materials company reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.08 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 12.57% and a return on equity of 22.72%. The business had revenue of $4.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. Ecolab’s revenue was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Ecolab has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 2.130-2.230 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 8.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th were issued a dividend of $0.73 per share. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 15th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 39.19%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Christophe Beck sold 17,862 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.14, for a total value of $5,003,860.68. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 72,932 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,431,170.48. This represents a 19.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Ecolab

Ecolab Inc is a global provider of water, hygiene, infection prevention and cleaning solutions for businesses and institutions. The company helps customers manage water and energy use, maintain sanitary operations, protect food supplies and comply with health and safety standards.

Ecolab serves customers across industries including food and beverage processing, hospitality, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, institutional facilities and energy. Its offerings include cleaning and sanitizing chemicals, water-treatment and process-management systems, pest-control services, kitchen and housekeeping products, infection-prevention programs, and related equipment, training and consulting services.

Founded in 1923 as Economics Laboratory, the company has expanded from its original focus on cleaning products into a broad range of technology-enabled services and solutions.