Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Updates FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on ECL. Bank of America raised Ecolab from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Ecolab in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a peer perform rating for the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Ecolab from $232.00 to $243.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Mizuho raised Ecolab from a neutral rating to a buy rating and upped their price target for the company from $216.00 to $260.00 in a report on Friday, April 12th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $233.65.

Ecolab Price Performance

NYSE ECL traded up $1.54 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $226.52. 369,357 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,204,688. The stock has a market cap of $64.76 billion, a PE ratio of 41.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.08. Ecolab has a one year low of $156.72 and a one year high of $231.86. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $224.37 and a 200-day moving average of $202.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.95 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 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.74 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 20.56% and a net margin of 10.01%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ecolab will post 6.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be given a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.01%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

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.