Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Updates FY24 Earnings Guidance

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $193.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and issued a $238.00 target price on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Ecolab from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Ecolab from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and increased their target price for the company from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.3 %

NYSE:ECL opened at $221.67 on Tuesday. Ecolab has a fifty-two week low of $156.72 and a fifty-two week high of $231.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $63.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.30. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $224.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $201.77.

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

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

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 $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.60%.

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.