Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Issues FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays upgraded shares of Ecolab from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and increased their price objective for the company from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and lifted their price target for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target 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. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $184.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock traded up $5.21 on Tuesday, reaching $226.88. The stock had a trading volume of 849,994 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,201,768. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $224.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $201.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.30. Ecolab has a fifty-two week low of $156.72 and a fifty-two week high of $231.86. The stock has a market cap of $64.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.27 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab will post 6.42 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were paid a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 47.60%.

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.