One-glance verdict
Overvalued
$157.08 our estimate vs market $275.51
Wall Street consensus: $324.95 (106.9% higher than our fair-value estimate)
75% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Fundamentals snapshot
Ecolab Inc.
ECL · NYQ · Basic Materials · Specialty Chemicals
Current price
$275.51
52-week range
$243.15 - $309.27
Market cap
$77.23B
Balance sheet
Watch
9.45x Adequate
Net debt $8.78B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 4.7% last year.
- Reward Returns 22.0% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
- Risk Stock trades 0.2% above its 5-year average P/E.
- Risk Insider ownership is only 0.2% (peer median: 0.2%).
What this company does
Ecolab Inc.
Ecolab provides essential cleaning, water treatment, and pest control services to other businesses like restaurants, hotels, and hospitals. The company makes money selling these necessary products and services that its customers need to buy on a regular basis. This creates a lot of recurring revenue (income that is likely to continue in the future), which helps make its business predictable and stable.
How the company got here
Ecolab started in 1923 as Economics Laboratory, created by Merritt J. Osborn. Its first product was a cleaner designed to quickly clean hotel carpets without having to remove them. The company grew by creating new products like dishwasher soap and by purchasing other companies, which allowed it to expand into new areas like industrial cleaning and pest control. A major turning point was the 2011 acquisition of Nalco Holding Company, which made Ecolab a leading player in water treatment. The company changed its name to Ecolab in 1986 and is now a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.
What it actually does
Ecolab provides products and services to help other businesses keep things clean, safe, and efficient. Think of the cleaning supplies and systems used in restaurants, hotels, and hospitals to ensure everything is sanitary – that's a big part of what Ecolab does. They also provide solutions to large industrial companies to treat and manage the water they use in their operations, helping them to conserve water and reduce pollution. You wouldn't typically buy Ecolab products in a grocery store, as they are focused on selling to other businesses.
Global Institutional & Specialty
This is Ecolab's largest business area, making up a significant portion of its sales. It provides cleaning and sanitizing products to places like restaurants, hotels, schools, and hospitals. For example, they supply the powerful dishwashing detergents for commercial kitchens and the laundry systems for large hotels. This segment focuses on ensuring these institutions can maintain clean and safe environments for their customers and staff.
Global Water
This part of the company helps industrial businesses manage their water usage. They provide treatments and technologies for cooling towers, boilers, and wastewater at manufacturing plants, power generation facilities, and food and beverage processors. The goal is to help these large-scale water users operate more efficiently, reduce their environmental impact, and save money by optimizing how they use and reuse water. This became a major focus for Ecolab after its acquisition of Nalco.
Global Pest Elimination
This segment provides services to get rid of pests like rodents and insects for commercial customers. Their clients are often in the food service, hospitality, and healthcare industries where pest control is critical for safety and reputation. Instead of just selling pest control products, this division focuses on providing a complete service to detect, eliminate, and prevent pest problems. This is a smaller but important part of Ecolab's overall business.
Global Life Sciences
This is a specialized and fast-growing segment for Ecolab that provides cleaning and contamination control solutions for pharmaceutical and personal care product manufacturers. These customers have extremely strict cleanliness standards to ensure their products are safe for consumers. Ecolab provides the specialized products and expertise to help them meet these high standards in their manufacturing processes. While it's one of the smaller segments, it's a key area of growth for the company.
What management is betting on now
Ecolab is heavily focused on helping its customers become more sustainable, particularly in how they use water. They are investing in technology and services that help businesses reduce their water and energy consumption, which not only helps the environment but also saves their customers money. The company is also expanding its presence in high-tech industries, such as semiconductor manufacturing, where extremely pure water is essential. A key part of their strategy is to provide not just chemicals, but a complete solution that includes equipment, data-driven insights, and expert service to help their clients operate more efficiently and safely.
How the company got here
Ecolab began in 1923 as Economics Laboratory, founded by Merritt J. Osborn. Its first product was a cleaner that allowed hotels to clean carpets without removing them from the room. The company grew by creating new products like Soilax, a soap for mechanical dishwashers, and by buying other companies to enter new markets like industrial cleaning and pest control. A key moment was the 2011 purchase of Nalco, which made Ecolab a global leader in water treatment. The company officially changed its name to Ecolab in 1986 and is now a public company whose stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
What it actually does
Ecolab is a business-to-business company, meaning it sells its products and services to other companies rather than directly to you. It provides solutions for water, hygiene, and infection prevention to customers in over 170 countries. For example, they supply the powerful cleaning and sanitizing products used in restaurant kitchens, hotels, and hospitals to keep things safe and clean. They also help large industrial facilities like factories and power plants treat and manage the water they use, helping them to save water and operate more efficiently.
Global Institutional & Specialty
This is one of the company's largest segments, making up a major part of its sales. It provides specialized cleaning and sanitizing products to customers like restaurants, hotels, schools, and healthcare facilities. This includes everything from the detergents used in commercial dishwashers and laundry machines to housekeeping supplies. Businesses in these industries pay Ecolab to help them ensure their environments are clean, safe, and meet public health standards.
Global Water
This division helps industrial customers like manufacturing plants, food and beverage processors, and power companies manage their water. It provides water treatment chemicals, monitoring systems, and services for things like cooling towers, boilers, and wastewater. The goal is to help these large companies use water more efficiently, reduce pollution, and improve the performance of their equipment. This part of the business grew significantly after Ecolab bought the water treatment company Nalco.
Global Pest Elimination
This segment operates as a service that helps businesses detect, prevent, and get rid of pests like insects and rodents. Its customers are typically restaurants, hotels, food processors, and healthcare facilities where being pest-free is absolutely critical. Instead of just selling a product off the shelf, Ecolab's team works with these businesses to create ongoing pest management programs. While smaller than the water and institutional segments, it's a steady part of the company's business.
Global Life Sciences
This is a highly specialized and growing part of Ecolab's business that serves pharmaceutical and personal care manufacturers. These industries have incredibly strict standards for cleanliness to prevent contamination of their products. Ecolab provides these companies with advanced cleaning and disinfection solutions to ensure their manufacturing environments are sterile and safe. This segment represents a smaller but important and expanding slice of the company's revenue (the total amount of money a company brings in from sales).
What management is betting on now
Ecolab's main focus is on helping customers operate more sustainably, especially by using water more efficiently. The company is investing in digital technology that uses data to help clients reduce their water and energy use, which also lowers their costs. They are also expanding into high-growth markets like the manufacturing of microchips and semiconductors, which require extremely pure water. The strategy is to be a partner that provides a complete package of chemicals, equipment, and expert service to solve critical cleaning, safety, and water management challenges.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$550.30M
FY2024 Q4
$407.00M
FY2025 Q1
$131.50M
FY2025 Q2
$485.10M
FY2025 Q3
$529.70M
FY2025 Q4
$758.00M
FY2026 Q1
$97.40M
FY2026 Q2
$489.40M
Revenue
$4.42B
Net income
$534.90M
Diluted EPS
1.90
Operating cash flow
$729.50M
Free cash flow
$489.40M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$4.07B
Net income
$432.60M
Diluted EPS
1.52
Operating cash flow
$445.90M
Free cash flow
$97.40M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$4.20B
Net income
$563.90M
Diluted EPS
1.98
Operating cash flow
$1.09B
Free cash flow
$758.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$4.17B
Net income
$585.00M
Diluted EPS
2.05
Operating cash flow
$791.30M
Free cash flow
$529.70M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$4.03B
Net income
$524.20M
Diluted EPS
1.84
Operating cash flow
$701.80M
Free cash flow
$485.10M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$3.69B
Net income
$402.50M
Diluted EPS
1.41
Operating cash flow
$369.40M
Free cash flow
$131.50M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$4.01B
Net income
$472.90M
Diluted EPS
1.66
Operating cash flow
$766.70M
Free cash flow
$407.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$4.00B
Net income
$736.50M
Diluted EPS
2.58
Operating cash flow
$786.70M
Free cash flow
$550.30M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $157.08 vs current price $275.51
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $324.95 (106.9% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $157.08 a share — about 43.0% below today's price of $275.51, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Watch
Net debt $8.8B. Interest coverage 9.4x.
Net debt
$8.78B
Interest coverage
9.45x
Ecolab Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 9.4 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here.
Watch
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
ECL
BASELINE
Ecolab Inc.
Total debt $13.92B Interest coverage 9.45x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $15.03B Interest coverage 8.16x -14% vs ECL Has roughly the same debt cushion as ECL.
Total debt $18.27B Interest coverage 13.50x +43% vs ECL Carries about 1.4x more debt cushion than ECL.
Total debt $7.47B Interest coverage 9.00x -5% vs ECL Has roughly the same debt cushion as ECL.
Total debt $3.18B Interest coverage 2.75x -71% vs ECL Carries about 3.4x less debt cushion than ECL.
Total debt $6.28B Interest coverage 3.68x -61% vs ECL Carries about 2.6x less debt cushion than ECL.
What you should know
The case for and against ECL
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 4.7% last year.
-
Returns 22.0% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 0.2% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Insider ownership is only 0.2% (peer median: 0.2%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
36.93x
Forward P/E
29.25x
P/B
7.68x
P/S
4.59x
EV/EBITDA
20.81x
PEG ratio
2.49x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
44.2%
Operating margin
18.5%
Net margin
12.6%
ROE
22.0%
ROA
7.2%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
1.38x
Current ratio
1.84x
Quick ratio
1.50x
Total debt
$13.92B
Total cash
$5.14B
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$16.84B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
6.0%
EPS TTM
7.46
EPS 5Y CAGR
24.1%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$3.06B
Free CF TTM
$1.90B
FCF margin
11.3%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
1.1%
Payout ratio
38.1%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-15