William Blair Issues Optimistic Estimate for Ecolab Earnings

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) – Investment analysts at William Blair boosted their Q1 2025 EPS estimates for shares of Ecolab in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, February 11th. William Blair analyst T. Mulrooney now expects that the basic materials company will earn $1.50 per share for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of $1.49. The consensus estimate for Ecolab’s current full-year earnings is $6.64 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Ecolab’s Q3 2025 earnings at $2.10 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $2.06 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $7.49 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $8.40 EPS.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on ECL. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $285.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $263.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $284.33.

Ecolab Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of ECL opened at $265.74 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $242.33 and its 200 day moving average is $246.20. Ecolab has a fifty-two week low of $213.94 and a fifty-two week high of $267.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.25 billion, a PE ratio of 37.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.30.

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 given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a positive change from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.

Insider Activity

In other Ecolab news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 106,542 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 29,348,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,079,209,816.61. This trade represents a 0.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 260,415 shares of company stock worth $63,544,899 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ecolab

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ECL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,149,744 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,658,768,000 after purchasing an additional 105,289 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,273,277 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,231,873,000 after buying an additional 91,475 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 3,995,817 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $936,300,000 after buying an additional 304,478 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab by 0.9% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,842,114 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $981,007,000 after purchasing an additional 35,027 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Ecolab by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,993,504 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $701,438,000 after purchasing an additional 165,949 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.