Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Releases FY 2025 Earnings Guidance

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) issued an update on its FY 2025 earnings guidance on Tuesday morning. 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.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $262.36 on Thursday. 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 $74.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.80, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $242.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $246.20. Ecolab has a 1 year low of $212.71 and a 1 year high of $267.56.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ecolab will post 6.64 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.47%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on ECL shares. Citigroup raised their target price on Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $284.33.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.21, for a total value of $25,698,995.82. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 29,348,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,079,209,816.61. This represents a 0.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold 260,415 shares of company stock worth $63,544,899 over the last ninety days. Company 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.