Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Releases FY24 Earnings Guidance

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) issued an update on its FY24 earnings guidance on Tuesday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $6.40-6.70 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.41. Ecolab also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 6.400-6.700 EPS.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.7 %

ECL traded up $1.59 on Thursday, reaching $226.57. 413,578 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,205,709. Ecolab has a one year low of $156.72 and a one year high of $231.86. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $224.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $202.37. The company has a market cap of $64.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.08. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 analyst estimates of $3.74 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.88 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ecolab will post 6.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.01%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ECL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ecolab from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and boosted their target price for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $233.65.

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.