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Ecolab, Inc. ECL is scheduled to report fourth-quarter 2025 results on Feb. 10, before the opening bell.
In the last reported quarter, the company’s adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.07 surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.5%. Over the trailing four quarters, its earnings outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate on two occasions, missed once and broke even in the other, delivering an earnings surprise of 0.3%, on average.
Let’s see how things have shaped up for Ecolab prior to this announcement.
Effective first-quarter 2025, Ecolab’s Global Industrial segment was renamed Global Water and includes Light & Heavy (previously named Water), Food & Beverage, and Paper.
The segment witnessed a sales uptick in the third quarter of 2025 on both fixed currency and organic basis, accelerating Food & Beverage sales growth and continued growth in Light & Heavy revenues. Light & Heavy’s growth was led by double-digit growth in Global High-Tech and solid gains in Manufacturing, while robust new business gains in Food & Beverage (which leveraged the One Ecolab growth strategy) aided the sales growth. We expect this momentum to have continued in the to-be-reported quarter, thereby driving up the revenues.
Ecolab is likely to continue to benefit from the robust adoption of its recently-launched 3D TRASAR for direct-to-chip liquid cooling for next-generation AI data centers, thus boosting its fourth-quarter 2025 results.
On third-quarter 2025 earnings call in October 2025, management stated that the Global High-Tech business continued to grow rapidly, while Ecolab Digital maintained its strong momentum and delivered strong sales growth in the quarter. Per management, Ecolab Digital now has annualized sales of more than $380 million, driven by rapid growth in subscription revenue and digital hardware. Overall, Digital is a $13 billion growth opportunity for Ecolab, with $3 billion of this expected within ECL’s existing customer base. Management’s continued focus on capturing this high-margin opportunity as it leverages the company’s digital technologies and monetizes its large and expanding installed base looks promising for the stock.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the fourth quarter of 2025 Global Water revenues is currently pegged at $2.02 billion.
In third-quarter 2025, the uptick in the segment’s fixed currency sales reflected organic growth and a benefit from attractive, targeted acquisitions in North America. Per ECL, improved organic sales growth was led by good gains in food & beverage, restaurants and healthcare, which continue to benefit from the company’s One Ecolab growth strategy. We expect this momentum to have continued in the to-be-reported quarter, thereby driving up the revenues.
On third-quarter 2025 earnings call, management stated that ECL has installed more than 400,000 intelligent devices (formerly called mousetraps) in its Pest Intelligence platform. The company is currently aiming to deploy more than 1 million devices to deliver pest-free outcomes as it harnesses the power of ECOLAB3D digital infrastructure and service capabilities. This looks promising for the stock.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the fourth-quarter 2025 Global Pest Elimination revenues is currently pegged at $308 million, suggesting an uptick of 4.4% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.
In the third quarter of 2025, the Global Institutional & Specialty segment’s Specialty business delivered strong sales growth, reflecting robust new business wins and continued value pricing. The Institutional business witnessed good growth in sales to hospitality customers during the quarter. On the earnings call, management stated that innovations like DishIQ, AquaIQ and ReadyDose in the Institutional & Specialty segment are witnessing strong growth as these solutions help Ecolab’s customers improve operational performance, optimize their scarce labor resources and reduce total cost. We expect this momentum to have continued in the to-be-reported quarter, thereby driving up the revenues.
On the same call, management stated that Ecolab launched a series of drug purification resins for the bioprocessing industry within Global Life Sciences, which is likely to improve product quality and lead to significant operational efficiencies for its customers. This is likely to be a contributor to the to-be-reported quarter’s revenues.
However, Ecolab continued to face lower Paper sales due to soft customer production rates and softness in Basic Industries (comprising steel, power and chemicals businesses) in the second quarter of 2025. This is likely to have weighed on its fourth-quarter performance as well. Also, the currently volatile macroeconomic environment stemming from tariff uncertainties raises our apprehension about the stock’s performance in the to-be-reported quarter.
For fourth-quarter 2025, the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.19 billion for total revenues implies an improvement of 4.7% from the prior-year quarter’s reported figure.
The consensus estimate for EPS is pegged at $2.06, implying an improvement of 13.8% from the prior-year period’s reported number.
Our proven model predicts an earnings beat for Ecolab this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an earnings beat.
Earnings ESP: Ecolab has an Earnings ESP of +0.32%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they are reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
Zacks Rank: The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Ecolab Inc. price-eps-surprise | Ecolab Inc. Quote
Over the past three months, Ecolab’s shares have gained 9.1%, underperforming the Chemical - Specialty’s 12.1% growth. ECL’s shares underperformed the Zacks Basic Materials sector’s increase of 25.5%, but outperformed the S&P 500’s gain of 2.9%.
Ecolab’s peers like Linde plc LIN have outperformed the company, while Givaudan SA GVDNY and Element Solutions Inc ESI underperformed the company. LIN’s shares are up 10.8%, while GVDNY and ESI shares are down 6.9% and up 7.1%, respectively, in the same time frame.
From a valuation standpoint, ECL’s forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) is 33X, a premium to the industry's average of 21.7X, but lower than its five-year median of 33.1X.
The company is trading at a premium to its peers, Linde, Givaudan and Element Solutions. Element Solutions’ P/E currently stands at 16.8X, while the ratios for Linde and Givaudan stand at 25.8X and 22.5X, respectively.
This suggests that investors may be paying a higher price relative to the company's expected sales growth.
On third-quarter 2025 earnings call, management stated that Ecolab’s growth platform has enabled it to serve the high-growth data center and microelectronics industries. Management expects that the acquisition of Ovivo Electronics will more than double the size of Ecolab's Global High-Tech business to nearly $900 million by combining Ovivo's water technologies with Ecolab's water solutions, digital technologies and global service capabilities. The combined technology platform will likely enable ECL to expand its offerings to provide circular water solutions for microelectronics, helping to maximize chip production and quality for this booming industry.
Over the past few months, Ecolab has entered a slew of partnerships. Last month, it announced a strategic partnership with CDP to launch the Water Use Efficiency Index, a new benchmark designed to help companies measure, compare and improve operational water performance. In November 2025, ECL announced the expansion of its exclusive partnership with The Home Depot. This is expected to enable Canadians to shop for cleaning solutions for commercial, industrial and residential use under the Ecolab Scientific Clean product line at more than 180 Home Depot retail stores across Canada and online. These agreements will likely enable the company to significantly boost its business over time.
Ecolab, in November, launched a fully integrated cooling program to optimize cooling performance at a global scale. The company plans to integrate its 3D TRASAR Technology for Direct-to-Chip Liquid Cooling into its smart Coolant Distribution Unit and advance the data center industry with this holistic cooling solution. This looks encouraging for its business over the long term.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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