Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Announces Earnings Results, Meets Expectations

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81, Zacks reports. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. Ecolab updated its FY 2025 guidance to 7.420-7.620 EPS and its Q1 2025 guidance to 1.470-1.530 EPS.

Ecolab Price Performance

Ecolab stock traded up $17.20 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $263.14. The company had a trading volume of 1,155,811 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,172,119. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The company has a market cap of $74.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. Ecolab has a fifty-two week low of $201.99 and a fifty-two week high of $267.56. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $241.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $245.97.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.99%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.60.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 83,873 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.96, for a total transaction of $20,629,403.08. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,534,868 shares in the company, valued at $7,264,396,133.28. This represents a 0.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 360,415 shares of company stock worth $88,350,899. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.