Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Updates Q2 2024 Earnings Guidance

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) issued an update on its second quarter 2024 earnings guidance on Tuesday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of 1.620-1.720 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of 1.540. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Ecolab also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 6.400-6.700 EPS.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:ECL traded up $1.54 on Thursday, hitting $226.52. 369,357 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,204,688. Ecolab has a 12 month low of $156.72 and a 12 month high of $231.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $64.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.08. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $224.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $202.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.74 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 20.56% and a net margin of 10.01%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.88 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Ecolab will post 6.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company 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 $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.01%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $232.00 to $243.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ecolab from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $185.00 to $216.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $225.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Wednesday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $233.65.

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.