Stock · ECL · Basic Materials
United States · Large Cap · listed since 1988 · Revenue 12 mo. $16.8B
Price as of 11/06/2026
Ecolab Inc. provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally.
Ecolab Inc. provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Global Water, Global Institutional & Specialty, Global Pest Elimination, and Global Life Sciences. The Global Water segment offers water treatment and process applications, and cleaning and sanitizing solutions to manufacturing, food and beverage processing, transportation, chemical, primary metals and mining, power generation, global refining, petrochemical, pulp and paper industries. The Global Institutional & Specialty segment provides cleaning and sanitizing products to the foodservice, healthcare, hospitality, lodging, government, education and retail industries. The Global Pest Elimination segment provides pest elimination services to detect, prevent, and eliminate pests comprising rodents and insects in full-service and quick-service restaurants, food and beverage processors, hotels, grocery operations, and other commercial segments, including education, life sciences, and healthcare. The Global Life Sciences segment provides cleaning and contamination control solutions to pharmaceutical and personal care manufacturers. It offers its products under the Ecolab, Kay, Purolite, and Bioquell brand names. The company sells its products through field sales and corporate account personnel, distributors, and dealers. Ecolab Inc. was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
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Summary
52.1 of 100
Mean of the six area values. Each area value is the mean of the stock's ranks among the companies in its sector. 50 is the middle of the sector, not a share of companies beaten.
Analysis
What the price requires
If free cash flow stays at €1.7B (2025), it supports €19B. The remaining €55.4B of the market value assume it grows 19.0% a year for 10 years and not at all afterwards.
Required FCF growth per year
19.0%
no growth afterwards
Price to operating cash flow 27.8×, above its usual range.
Middle half of 20 quarters: 23.7× to 26.9×, median 25.5×.
Measures only against its own past, not against what the company is worth. Price as of 11/06/2026.
with respect to the priced-in expectation
with respect to the priced-in expectation
Since the last quarter
Q1 → Q2 2026
8 more unchanged: Revenue, 12 mo., FCF, 12 mo., Gross margin, EBIT margin, FCF margin, Net debt, Shares outstanding, Return on equity
Derivation
Each area value is the average of its metrics' ranks within the sector (0 to 100, 50 is the middle). For metrics where lower is better, the rank is mirrored. The overall value is the average of the area values.
Price as of 11/06/2026.
| Metric | Stock | Sector median | Position in sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on equity | 21.24% | 10.66% | Rank 90 |
| Return on capital (Greenblatt) | 53.31% | 14.75% | Rank 96 |
| EBIT margin | 18.11% | 15.82% | Rank 54 |
| FCF margin | 11.84% | 8.70% | Rank 63 |
| Gross margin | 44.51% | 34.18% | Rank 74 |
| Metric | Stock | Sector median | Position in sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth, 1 year | 2.16% | 4.25% | Rank 45 |
| Earnings growth, 3 years per year | 24.09% | 0.28% | Rank 74 |
| Earnings growth, 5 years per yeardoes not count towards the rank | – | 13.36% | |
| Sustainable growth (ROE × retained earnings) | 6.52% | 9.35% | Rank 31 |
| Metric | Stock | Sector median | Position in sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earnings yield | 2.42% | 4.98% | Rank 23 |
| FCF yield | 2.30% | 3.94% | Rank 31 |
| EV/saleslower is better | 5.70 | 2.36 | Rank 16 |
| EV/EBITlower is better | 31.46 | 14.61 | Rank 13 |
| Metric | Stock | Sector median | Position in sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share price, 1 year | 9.21% | 8.75% | Rank 50 |
| Share price, 6 months | 18.76% | −1.37% | Rank 89 |
| Share price, 3 months | 10.57% | −1.16% | Rank 87 |
| Distance from 52-week high | −4.55% | −21.97% | Rank 90 |
| Metric | Stock | Sector median | Position in sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accruals (Sloan)lower is better | 7.77% | 0.63% | Rank 14 |
| Change in share countlower is better | −0.49% | −0.01% | Rank 62 |
| Dividend streak in years | 8 | 3 | Rank 79 |
| Price reaction to results, market-adjusted | 0.16% | 0.05% | Rank 52 |
| Metric | Stock | Sector median | Position in sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equity ratio | 39.56% | 54.83% | Rank 18 |
| Net debt/EBITDAlower is better | 2.54 | 1.01 | Rank 18 |
| Debt to equitylower is better | 0.97 | 0.37 | Rank 12 |
| Volatility, 1 yearlower is better | 21.18% | 37.23% | Rank 96 |
Ten years in figures
| Year | Revenue, $B | EBIT margin | FCF, $B | Shares | Net debt, $B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 13.2 | 15.3% | 1.2 | 297M | 6.4 |
| 2017 | 13.8 | 15.9% | 1.2 | 294M | 7.1 |
| 2018 | 14.7 | 13.5% | 1.4 | 293M | 6.9 |
| 2019 | 12.6 | 15.2% | 1.7 | 293M | 6.7 |
| 2020 | 11.8 | 14.5% | 1.4 | 287M | 5.9 |
| 2021 | 12.7 | 13.2% | 1.4 | 289M | 8.8 |
| 2022 | 14.2 | 11.3% | 1.1 | 287M | 8.4 |
| 2023 | 15.3 | 14.1% | 1.6 | 287M | 7.8 |
| 2024 | 15.7 | 16.6% | 1.8 | 287M | 7.0 |
| 2025 | 16.1 | 18.1% | 1.9 | 285M | 8.8 |
4 of 7 StockScorer Score rules met · How the score is built
Ecolab Inc mainly meets criteria in the Profitability category. Result from 18 strategies checked.
Ecolab Inc is rated here with the StockScorer Score strategy, the flagship rule set. It compares return and cash-flow metrics with the median of the company's own sector and checks growth and price trend.
4 of 7 rules met
6 of 11 points
Detail data
Excerpt from 18 strategies checked. The full evaluation is visible after a free sign-up.
With a free account, you can see the match across all strategies checked in one complete overview.
Selected fundamental metrics for Ecolab Inc.
| Metric | Stock | Sector |
|---|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 41.3 | 19.6 |
| P/B ratio | 8.8 | 2.1 |
| Return on equity (ROE) | 21.2% | 10.7% |
| Equity ratio | 39.6% | 54.8% |
| Debt-to-equity (D/E) | 0.97 | 0.37 |
| Dividend yield | 1.0% | 2.1% |
How comparable stocks in the same sector score in the StockScorer model.
| Symbol | Company | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| ECL | Ecolab Incthis page | |
| SHW | Sherwin-Williams Co | Low4.5 |
| APD | Air Products and Chemicals Inc | Low0.0 |
| PPG | PPG Industries Inc | Medium5.5 |
| IFF | International Flavors & Fragrances Inc | locked |
| GIVN.SW | Givaudan SA | locked |
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