Vautrinot Suzanne M 4

What Happened

• Suzanne M. Vautrinot, a director of Ecolab Inc., exercised 2,000 stock options on 2026-05-22 (exercise price shown $125.67) to acquire 2,000 shares. To cover the exercise/tax obligation, 996 shares were surrendered/withheld (reported as a disposal under tax-withholding). The remaining 1,004 shares were sold in the open market on 2026-05-27 at $264.98 per share for proceeds of $266,040. This sequence is a cashless exercise followed by an open-market sale — a routine disposition rather than a new cash investment.

Key Details

• Transaction dates and amounts:
  • 2026-05-22: Exercise of options — 2,000 shares acquired at $125.67 (total reported $251,330).
  • 2026-05-22: 996 shares delivered/withheld to satisfy exercise price/taxes at $252.27 (total reported $251,258).
  • 2026-05-27: Open-market sale — 1,004 shares at $264.98 (proceeds $266,040).
  • Form also shows a derivative conversion line for 2,000 shares (standard reporting of option conversion).
• Shares owned after transaction: Not specified in the excerpt of the filing.
• Footnotes of note:
  • F1: The 996-share disposal reflects withholding/delivery of shares to pay the exercise price/taxes.
  • F2: The option had a staggered vesting schedule (25% quarterly); the date listed corresponds to the first vesting date.
• Filing timeliness: Transactions occurred 2026-05-22 and the Form 4 was filed 2026-05-27 — filed within the usual 2-business-day window (timely).

Context

• This is an option exercise with immediate partial sale (cashless exercise). The withholding of shares to cover taxes/exercise costs is common and explains why only a portion of the exercised shares were sold in the market.
• The transactions are routine director activity and should be viewed as reporting of personal liquidity from exercised options rather than a clear buy/sell signal about company prospects. Transaction codes: M = option exercise/conversion, F = tax/withholding, S = open-market sale.