Health score, competitive moat, risk signals, and key metrics at a glance.
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.
Competitive analysis based on 68 quarters of fundamental data
Operating margins are positive at ~17.5% on average, but show some variability — pricing power may be sensitive to market conditions.
Consistently high ROE averaging 22.3% suggests a durable competitive advantage and efficient capital allocation.
Free cash flow is consistently positive and growing — a hallmark of a capital-light business that can self-fund growth.
TTM revenue has grown consistently (6 of 7 quarters up), with ~5.2% growth over the period. Strong demand durability.
Data-driven red flags and warnings across 68 quarters
Operating margins declined 5.6% — watch for continued compression, which may signal competitive or cost pressure.
FCF covers net income by 0.8x on average — earnings are well-supported by cash generation.
D/E ratio is 0.7 — conservative capital structure with low financial risk.
Revenue is stable or growing over recent quarters — demand appears durable.
Free cash flow is consistently positive — the business self-funds without external capital reliance.
Share count is stable — no significant dilution or buyback activity.
as of March 2026
Revenue, EBITDA, operating income, net income, EPS, and shares
Gross, EBITDA, operating, and net margin trends
P/E, P/S, P/B, EV/EBITDA, FCF yield, and earnings yield
Total assets, cash, debt, book value, and leverage
Operating cash flow, free cash flow, FCF margin, and earnings quality
