Valmark Advisers Inc. Invests $211,000 in Ecolab Inc. $ECL

Valmark Advisers Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 783 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

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

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of ECL opened at $271.80 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.44. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $221.62 and a twelve month high of $286.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $274.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $262.97. The firm has a market cap of $77.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.29, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.09.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $4.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.59% and a return on equity of 22.52%. Ecolab has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 2.020-2.120 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 7.420-7.620 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 16th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 34.71%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $295.00 to $299.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Raymond James Financial began coverage on shares of Ecolab in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $292.29.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

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