How to buy Ecolab (ECL) stocks

Ecolab is a specialty chemicals business based in the US. Ecolab shares (ECL) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars.

Its last market close was $238.29 – a decrease of 4.76% over the previous week. Ecolab employs 48,000 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around $15.7 billion.

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Ecolab stock price (NYSE: ECL)

Use our graph to track the performance of ECL stocks over time.

Ecolab stocks at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2024-12-18.

Latest market close	$238.29
52-week range	$191.59 - $261.92
50-day moving average more info button	$250.30
200-day moving average more info button	$240.34
Wall St. target price	$275.96
PE ratio more info button	33.3324
Dividend yield more info button	$2.28 (1.09%)
Earnings per share (TTM) more info button	$7.13

Is it a good time to buy Ecolab stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

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Ecolab price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $235.53 from 2024-12-19

1 week (2024-12-13)	-5.86%
1 month (2024-11-21)	-3.24%
3 months (2024-09-20)	-6.33%
6 months (2024-06-21)	-3.47%

1 year (2023-12-21)	19.61%
2 years (2022-12-21)	66.85%
3 years (2021-12-21)	8.24%
5 years (2019-12-20)	29.98%

Is Ecolab stock undervalued or overvalued?

Valuing Ecolab stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Ecolab's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Ecolab's P/E ratio

Ecolab's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 33x. In other words, Ecolab shares trade at around 33x recent earnings.

That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the stock or simply that they're over-valued.

Ecolab's PEG ratio

Ecolab's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 2.4756. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the stocks offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the stocks offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Ecolab's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the stock prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Ecolab's EBITDA

Ecolab's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is $3.5 billion.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Ecolab's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Ecolab financials

Revenue TTM	$15.7 billion
Operating margin TTM	14.72%
Gross profit TTM	$5.4 billion
Return on assets TTM	7.42%
Return on equity TTM	25.16%
Profit margin	13.05%
Book value	$23.46
Market Capitalization more info button	$67.3 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Ecolab stock dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 36.88% of net profits

Recently Ecolab has paid out, on average, around 0% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 0% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Ecolab shareholders could enjoy a 0% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Ecolab's case, that would currently equate to about $2.28 per share.

While Ecolab's payout ratio might seem fairly standard, it's worth remembering that Ecolab may be investing much of the rest of its net profits in future growth.

Ecolab's most recent dividend payout was on 14 January 2025. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their stocks by 16 December 2024 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Ecolab's stocks ever split?

Ecolab's stocks were split on a 2:1 basis on 8 June 2003 . So if you had owned 1 share the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 2 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Ecolab stocks – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 50% lower stock price could have impacted the market appetite for Ecolab stocks, which in turn could have impacted Ecolab's stock price.

Ecolab stock price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Ecolab's stocks have ranged in value from as little as $191.5852 up to $261.9228. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta."

Beta is a measure of a stocks volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Ecolab's is 1.141. This would suggest that Ecolab's stocks are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Ecolab overview

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. Its Global Institutional & Specialty segment provides specialized cleaning and sanitizing products to the foodservice, hospitality, lodging, government and education, and retail industries. The Global Healthcare & Life Sciences segment offers specialized cleaning and sanitizing products to the healthcare, personal care, and pharmaceutical industries, such as infection prevention and surgical solutions, and end-to-end cleaning and contamination control solutions under the Ecolab, Microtek, and Anios brand names. In addition, the company provides pest elimination services to detect, eliminate, and prevent pests, such as rodents and insects in restaurants, food and beverage processors, hotels, grocery operations, and other commercial segments including education, life sciences, and healthcare customers.

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Frequently asked questions

What percentage of Ecolab is owned by insiders or institutions?
Currently 0.178% of Ecolab stocks are held by insiders and 90.787% by institutions. How many people work for Ecolab?
Latest data suggests 48,000 work at Ecolab. When does the fiscal year end for Ecolab?
Ecolab's fiscal year ends in December. Where is Ecolab based?
Ecolab's address is: 1 Ecolab Place, Saint Paul, MN, United States, 55102-2233 What is Ecolab's ISIN number?
Ecolab's international securities identification number is: US2788651006 What is Ecolab's CUSIP number?
Ecolab's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 278865100

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