Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Updates Q1 2025 Earnings Guidance

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ECL. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $270.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $281.27.

Ecolab Trading Up 6.2 %

ECL opened at $261.07 on Wednesday. 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 fifty day moving average price of $242.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $246.08. The company has a market cap of $73.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.14. Ecolab has a 1-year low of $201.99 and a 1-year high of $267.56.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted 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 net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. Analysts predict that Ecolab will post 6.64 EPS 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 given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. 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%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 36.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 70,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.95, for a total transaction of $17,216,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,178,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,176,511,348.95. The trade was a 0.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 360,415 shares of company stock worth $88,350,899. 0.04% of the stock is owned by 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.