Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Issues Q1 2025 Earnings Guidance

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) updated its first quarter 2025 earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided EPS guidance of 1.470-1.530 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of 1.490. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Ecolab also updated its FY 2025 guidance to 7.420-7.620 EPS.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.60.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of ECL opened at $245.50 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Ecolab has a 52-week low of $201.99 and a 52-week high of $262.61. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $241.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $245.97. The company has a market capitalization of $69.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14.

Ecolab Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This is a boost from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 36.47%.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 83,873 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.96, for a total value of $20,629,403.08. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,534,868 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,264,396,133.28. This represents a 0.28 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 360,415 shares of company stock worth $88,350,899 in the last three months. 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.