Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Updates FY 2025 Earnings Guidance

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) updated its FY 2025 earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of 7.420-7.620 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of 7.450. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Ecolab also updated its Q1 2025 guidance to 1.470-1.530 EPS.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ECL. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Barclays boosted their price target on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $281.27.

Ecolab Stock Up 6.2 %

NYSE ECL opened at $261.07 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $73.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.62, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Ecolab has a 1-year low of $201.99 and a 1-year high of $267.56. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $242.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $246.08.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. Equities analysts forecast that Ecolab will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Insider Transactions at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total value of $25,698,995.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 29,348,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,079,209,816.61. The trade was a 0.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold 360,415 shares of company stock valued at $88,350,899 in the last three months. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.