First Merchants Corp Acquires 17,257 Shares of Ecolab Inc. $ECL

First Merchants Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 409.7% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 21,469 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,257 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $5,785,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Nemes Rush Group LLC lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 42,899 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,876,000 after purchasing an additional 2,651 shares during the last quarter. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 32.4% in the 1st quarter. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. now owns 14,005 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,551,000 after purchasing an additional 3,428 shares during the last quarter. Mirabaud & Cie SA lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Mirabaud & Cie SA now owns 5,092 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,291,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the 1st quarter worth approximately $284,000. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 1,189.2% in the 1st quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 144,392 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,606,000 after purchasing an additional 133,192 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In related news, Director David Maclennan purchased 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $278.51 per share, for a total transaction of $167,106.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 20,253 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,640,663.03. The trade was a 3.05% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Suzanne M. Vautrinot sold 1,354 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.16, for a total value of $383,398.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 11,199 shares in the company, valued at $3,171,108.84. This trade represents a 10.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on ECL shares. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Monday. Oppenheimer upgraded Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on Ecolab from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $292.29.

Ecolab Price Performance

NYSE:ECL opened at $281.35 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.44. The company has a 50-day moving average of $273.62 and a 200-day moving average of $262.69. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $221.62 and a 52 week high of $286.04. The company has a market capitalization of $79.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.56, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.09.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.90 by ($0.01). Ecolab had a net margin of 13.59% and a return on equity of 22.52%. The business had revenue of $4.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be given 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 dividend payout ratio is 34.71%.

Ecolab Company 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.