Ecolab Inc.: Mixed — EPS $2.18, Revenue $4.69B
Mixed ResultQ3 2026 · Pre-market
Did Ecolab Inc. (ECL) beat earnings today?
It was a mixed report for Q3 2026 — Ecolab Inc. (ECL) beat on EPS but missed on revenue.
Earnings Per Share+0.46% surprise
$2.18Actual
Expected: $2.17
vs. year ago +5.0%
Total Revenue-0.11% surprise
$4.69BActual
Expected: $4.7B
vs. year ago +13.0%
Released Oct 27 · 8:00 AM ET
Earning Report
| Metric | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | YoY Change % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $4.69B | $4.17B | +13.0% |
| Revenue detail — reported lines | |||
| └─Product and equipment sales | $3.70B | $3.26B | +13.3% |
| └─Service and lease sales | $997.40M | $902.40M | +10.5% |
| └─Global Water | $2.48B | $2.05B | +21.0% |
| └─Global Institutional & Specialty | $1.64B | $1.59B | +3.0% |
| └─Global Pest Elimination | $363.60M | $331.80M | +10.0% |
| └─Global Life Sciences | $213.90M | $184.70M | +16.0% |
| Net Income | $551.30M | $585.00M | -6.0% |
| GAAP Basic EPS | $1.97 | $2.06 | -4.0% |
| GAAP Diluted EPS | $1.95 | $2.05 | -5.0% |
| Adjusted Diluted EPS | $2.18 | $2.07 | +5.0% |
Financial Outlook / Guidance
| Metric | Q4 2026 Outlook | 2026 Outlook |
|---|---|---|
| Reported Sales | +12-14% YoY | — |
| Organic Sales Growth | +6-7% | — |
| Adjusted Operating Income Margin | ~19% | — |
| Organic Operating Income Margin | ~20% | — |
| Adjusted Diluted EPS | $2.13-$2.23 (+2-7% YoY) | $8.10-$8.20 (+8-9% YoY) |
| Special Charges | ~$0.26/share | ~$0.83/share |
Business Highlights
- ➤Global High-Tech delivered robust growth across microelectronics and data centers.
- ➤Ovivo Electronics and CoolIT performed exceptionally well following their acquisitions.
- ➤Food & Beverage gained new business through the One Ecolab growth strategy.
- ➤Light Water benefited from gains in manufacturing and institutional markets.
- ➤Paper and Heavy Water benefited from new business wins and stabilizing market trends.
- ➤Institutional won new business despite increasingly challenging industry trends.
- ➤More than 800,000 connected pest devices have been deployed.
- ➤Life Sciences gained share in bioprocessing, personal care and purification.
- ➤Ecolab Digital expanded enabling hardware subscriptions and software.
- ➤Water circularity and liquid-cooling technologies address microelectronics and AI data-center opportunities.
Management Commentary
Christophe Beck, Chairman, president and chief executive officer
“Third quarter results marked an inflection point in Ecolab's performance. Exceptional execution drove accelerating sales growth, margin expansion and double-digit adjusted operating income growth. Volume growth accelerated to 2% despite ongoing disruptions in the Middle East. As expected, pricing strengthened to 5% as we leveraged total value delivered to mitigate higher commodity costs while improving customer performance. This disciplined execution allowed us to stabilize our organic gross margin.”
Christophe Beck, Chairman, president and chief executive officer
“The breadth of our performance makes these results even more encouraging. Growth across our core businesses strengthened, led by accelerating growth in Food & Beverage and Light Water, alongside consistent growth in Institutional & Specialty despite softer market trends. Performance in Paper and Heavy Water also improved, with both businesses returning to solid growth. Across these core businesses, our One Ecolab growth initiative is helping deliver greater customer value and share gains for Ecolab.”
Christophe Beck, Chairman, president and chief executive officer
“Our growth engines continued to rapidly accelerate, with very strong performance across all businesses. Global High-Tech, our largest growth engine, significantly accelerated, growing 63% organically. Our recent acquisitions in this business, Ovivo Electronics and CoolIT, are also performing exceptionally well. This year, we expect Ovivo Electronics to grow mid-teens and CoolIT to more than double, compared with pre-acquisition sales. Together, these acquisitions are expected to add two percentage points to Ecolab's annual organic sales growth one year after close with increasing margins. Our differentiated water circularity solutions for microelectronics and next-gen liquid cooling technologies for AI data centers position Ecolab extremely well to capitalize on significant long-term growth opportunities.”
Christophe Beck, Chairman, president and chief executive officer
“We are entering 2027 with momentum and confidence in our ability to deliver another very strong year. We expect organic sales to grow at the upper end of our 5% to 7% target and Ecolab's adjusted operating income margin to reach 20%. Adjusted EPS growth is expected to accelerate in the second half of the year as we lap M&A transaction impacts and operating performance continues to accelerate. This provides a clear path to meet or exceed our long-term adjusted EPS growth target of 12% to 15% in 2027. We have never been better positioned to deliver exceptional value for customers and shareholders.”