Ecolab (ECL) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Ecolab Inc. is a global provider of water, hygiene, infection prevention and cleaning solutions for businesses and institutions. The company helps customers manage water and energy use, maintain sanitary operations, protect food supplies and comply with health and safety standards.

Ecolab serves customers across industries including food and beverage processing, hospitality, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, institutional facilities and energy. Its offerings include cleaning and sanitizing chemicals, water-treatment and process-management systems, pest-control services, kitchen and housekeeping products, infection-prevention programs, and related equipment, training and consulting services.

Founded in 1923 as Economics Laboratory, the company has expanded from its original focus on cleaning products into a broad range of technology-enabled services and solutions. Ecolab operates internationally, serving customers in North America and markets across Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

Christophe Beck serves as Ecolab’s president and chief executive officer. The company is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, and its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ECL.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $293.29 to $297.60
• 50-Day Range: $269.61 to $292.33
• 52-Week Range: $243.15 to $309.27
• Volume: 219,337 shs
• Average Volume: 1.44 million shs
• Market Capitalization: $83.40 billion
• P/E Ratio: 39.92
• Dividend Yield: 0.98%
• Price Target: $328.58
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy

Ecolab Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Ecolab scored higher than 92% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 47th out of 227 stocks in the materials sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 3.3 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Moderate Buy

Consensus Rating

Ecolab has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.91, and is based on 1 strong buy rating, 18 buy ratings, 3 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Upside Potential

Ecolab has a consensus price target of $328.58, representing about 10.4% upside from its current price of $297.52.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Ecolab has been the subject of 8 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 1.3 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 14.46%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Ecolab are expected to grow by 14.46% in the coming year, from $8.16 to $9.34 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Ecolab is 39.92, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 27.16.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Ecolab is 39.92, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the Materials sector average P/E ratio of about 29.21.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Ecolab has a PEG Ratio of 2.80. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Ecolab has a P/B Ratio of 8.56. P/B Ratios above 3 indicate that a company could be overvalued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 4.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

1.74% of the float of Ecolab has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Ecolab has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 4.05.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Ecolab has recently decreased by 9.65%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 4.2 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Yield

Ecolab pays a meaningful dividend of 1.01%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

Ecolab has been increasing its dividend for 33 years.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of Ecolab is 39.19%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, Ecolab will have a dividend payout ratio of 31.26% next year. This indicates that Ecolab will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

News and Social Media

• Score: 4.3 / 5
• News Sentiment: 0.90

News Sentiment

Ecolab has a news sentiment score of 0.90. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.38 average news sentiment score of Materials companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 30 news articles for Ecolab this week, compared to 7 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

10 people have searched for ECL on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 900% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

12 people have added Ecolab to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 100% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.4 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Ecolab insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $5,003,861.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

0.50% of the stock of Ecolab is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

74.91% of the stock of Ecolab is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

Company Calendar

• Record date for 10/15 Dividend: 9/15/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 10/15 Dividend: 9/15/2026
• Dividend Payable: 10/15/2026
• Last Earnings: 10/27/2026
• Today: 10/29/2026
• Investor Day 2026: 11/17/2026
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2026

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Materials
• Industry: Chemicals
• Sub-Industry: Specialty Chemicals
• Current Symbol: NYSE:ECL
• CIK: 31462
• Web: www.ecolab.com
• Phone: (800) 232-6522
• Fax: 651-293-2092
• Employees: 48,000
• Year Founded: 1923

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Ecolab: $328.58
• High Price Target: $357.00
• Low Price Target: $305.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +10.9%
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.91
• Research Coverage: 22 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $7.45
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 39.78
• Forward P/E Ratio: 36.31
• P/E Growth: 2.8
• Net Income: $2.08 billion
• Net Margins: 12.57%
• Pretax Margin: 15.61%
• Return on Equity: 22.72%
• Return on Assets: 8.71%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 1.18
• Current Ratio: 1.84
• Quick Ratio: 1.57

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $16.08 billion
• Price / Sales: 5.17
• Cash Flow: $11.38 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 26.03
• Book Value: $34.77 per share
• Price / Book: 8.52

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 280,330,000
• Free Float: 278,927,000
• Market Cap: $83.06 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.87