Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Releases FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) issued an update on its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Tuesday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of 6.400-6.700 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of 6.390. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Ecolab also updated its FY24 guidance to $6.40-6.70 EPS.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL stock traded up $0.73 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $227.49. 1,068,171 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,213,130. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $224.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $202.54. Ecolab has a fifty-two week low of $156.72 and a fifty-two week high of $231.86. The firm has a market cap of $65.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.01% and a return on equity of 20.56%. The company had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.74 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.88 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab will post 6.55 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be issued a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 18th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America upgraded Ecolab from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and raised their target price for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $225.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $233.65.

Ecolab Company Profile

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.