ECL

Ecolab Inc. ·NYSE·Materials
278.39 live · 2026-08-12 15:59
37.7%
Brown Bear Score
46.9%
Business Conviction Score
50.2%
Position Health Score
3.6%
Chase Risk
Daily closes

Daily closes · 1Y (252 sessions) · +0.7% · range 245.73–308.35

The Businesswhat the company reports

Business & cash flow

FCF / assets 7.7%
OCF / assets 12.0%
FCF / revenue 18.4%
Gross margin 44.2%
ROIC 14.9%
Forward P/E 29.5

FCF/assets and OCF/assets are the cash-flow measures Brown Bear's own testing found to survive; FCF/revenue is shown alongside for context. Assets are from the latest annual filing (FY2025).

Price vs Earnings growth

Forward EPS growth has outpaced trailing price return by +28.8pp

Confidence 95.0/100

Takeaway Earnings growth is outpacing price — consistent with the stock not yet fully reflecting its improving forward estimates.

Reported earnings

Next report 2026-10-26 before the open · consensus EPS 2.20

Q2 23 revenue: 3.85bnQ2 23 net income: 329.70mQ2 23 EPS: 1.15Q3 23 revenue: 3.96bnQ3 23 net income: 404.00mQ3 23 EPS: 1.41Q3 23Q4 23 revenue: 3.94bnQ4 23 net income: 405.20mQ4 23 EPS: 1.41Q1 24 revenue: 3.75bnQ1 24 net income: 412.10mQ1 24 EPS: 1.43Q1 24Q2 24 revenue: 3.99bnQ2 24 net income: 490.90mQ2 24 EPS: 1.71Q3 24 revenue: 4.00bnQ3 24 net income: 736.50mQ3 24 EPS: 2.58Q3 24Q4 24 revenue: 4.01bnQ4 24 net income: 472.90mQ4 24 EPS: 1.65Q1 25 revenue: 3.69bnQ1 25 net income: 402.50mQ1 25 EPS: 1.41Q1 25Q2 25 revenue: 4.03bnQ2 25 net income: 524.20mQ2 25 EPS: 1.84Q3 25 revenue: 4.17bnQ3 25 net income: 585.00mQ3 25 EPS: 2.05Q3 25Q4 25 revenue: 4.20bnQ4 25 net income: 563.90mQ4 25 EPS: 1.98Q1 26 revenue: 4.07bnQ1 26 net income: 432.60mQ1 26 EPS: 1.52Q1 26

Revenue Net incomeEPS (GAAP) (1.15–2.58, own scale) Derived Q4

12 quarters to Q1 26. Revenue and net income share one scale, so the gap between them is the margin. The line is GAAP EPS — it spans every quarter shown, where the reported figure only goes back as far as the consensus feed does.

Quarter endingRevenueYoY Net incomeEPS (GAAP) EPS reportedvs consensus Filed
2026-03-31 4.07bn +10.0% 432.60m 1.52 1.70 -0.7% 2026-05-07
2025-12-31 (derived) 4.20bn +4.8% 563.90m 1.98 2.08 -0.3% 2026-02-23
2025-09-30 4.17bn +4.2% 585.00m 2.05 2.07 -1.1% 2025-10-30
2025-06-30 4.03bn +1.0% 524.20m 1.84 2025-08-07

Earnings response

Typical move around a filing ±1.5%
On an ordinary two days ±1.0% — filings move it 1.5× as much
Direction 5 up, 6 down over 11 filings
Revenue change and price reaction, by quarter
Q3 22 revenue +10.5% year on yearQ3 22 filed 2022-11-04: price +5.3%Q1 23 revenue +9.3% year on yearQ1 23 filed 2023-05-04: price +0.2%Q1 23Q2 23 revenue +7.6% year on yearQ2 23 filed 2023-08-03: price -1.3%Q3 23 revenue +7.9% year on yearQ3 23 filed 2023-11-02: price +4.5%Q3 23Q1 24 revenue +5.0% year on yearQ1 24 filed 2024-05-02: price +1.1%Q2 24 revenue +3.5% year on yearQ2 24 filed 2024-08-02: price -3.7%Q2 24Q3 24 revenue +1.0% year on yearQ3 24 filed 2024-10-31: price -3.2%Q1 25 revenue -1.5% year on yearQ1 25 filed 2025-05-08: price -0.7%Q1 25Q2 25 revenue +1.0% year on yearQ2 25 filed 2025-08-07: price +1.5%Q3 25 revenue +4.2% year on yearQ3 25 filed 2025-10-30: price -0.4%Q3 25Q1 26 revenue +10.0% year on yearQ1 26 filed 2026-05-07: price -3.5%

Revenue up year on year Revenue down Price move around the filing separate scales — a crossing means nothing

Quarter endingFiledRevenue YoY Move around filingNext 20 sessions vs SPY
2026-03-31 2026-05-07 +10.0% -3.5% +1.0%
2025-09-30 2025-10-30 +4.2% -0.4% +6.7%
2025-06-30 2025-08-07 +1.0% +1.5% -0.9%
2025-03-31 2025-05-08 -1.5% -0.7% -0.8%

Share count

Diluted shares over time

Diluted shares Return since the previous filing

Direction Flat — little net change
Diluted shares 283.7M as at 2026-03-31
Change over 1 year -0.6%
Change over 3 years -0.8%
Public float $67.09bn as at 2025-06-30 (10-K)

The Pricewhat the chart is doingTop ↑

Price Levels

StrategyAt Support Zone
Reference band 272.75 — 281.01
Protective stop 261.89 (Atr, 5.4% risk)
Support 275.50 (4 touches, 1.1% away)
Resistance 282.47 (1.5% away)

Takeaway The shares are nearer the floor than the ceiling: about 1.1% above 275.50, a price buyers have stepped in at before, and 1.5% below 282.47, where sellers have turned up before. That floor has held 4 times, which is how it was spotted. If someone bought at today's price and sold if it dropped through the level below, they would be about 5.4% out of pocket. That is all this figure means — an illustration of the risk, not a price to sell at.

Levels are computed from price structure. They describe where the engine locates support and extension — they are not targets, and not advice.

Ichimoku Cloud (Adaptive)

Daily cloudPrice ABOVE the cloud | periods 8/22/43 (83% of classic 9/26/52)
LinesTenkan/Kijun BULL | cloud twist BULL
Cloud thickness10% percentile (thin — little structure to fight through)
Chikou spanAbove price from 26 periods ago
Weekly cloudPrice ABOVE the weekly cloud (context only, not scored)

Takeaway The stock is trading above its cloud — a shaded band drawn from several of its own moving averages, currently 272.98 to 275.72. Being above it means the medium-term picture is pointing upwards, and that band is the first place the stock has recent support if it slips back. Its shorter-term averages agree with that.

Trailing returns

21 days +3.2%
63 days +10.6%
126 days -7.1%
252 days +1.8%
Below 252d high9.7%

Trend context

PositionAt trend
ExtensionNormal
Trend slopeFlat
Direction of travelHolding its deviation

Takeaway The share price is close to the level its own longer-run trend suggests is fair, and that fair level is going sideways. The gap between the two has been fairly steady. Neither is stretched far enough to stand out.

Volatility

State No recent compression
Current band width10.8% of price
Recent tightest8.8% (7 sessions ago, narrower than 67.0% of its history)
Expansion since1.23×
Band 261.95 — 291.98

Takeaway Lately this share price has been swinging around inside a range roughly 11% wide. That is normal for this stock, so there is nothing unusual to read into it either way.

Historical trends

0255075100Share price 264.20–285.472026-07-062026-08-12
Position Health Business Conviction Share price

History begins when the site started recording, not when the company listed, so a short line means a short record and nothing more.

Repair Pathway

  1. Nearest Trigger EMA20 reclaim +0.2% gap is improving · Broadly stable
  2. Trigger 2 Volume confirmation above 1.2x +0.20x volume confirmation would improve confidence in the pathway · Broadly stable
  3. Trigger 3 MACD histogram acceleration turns positive repair trigger repair engine identifies this as the nearest technical repair catalyst · Deteriorating
  4. Trigger 4 Relative momentum rank above 0.55 +0.18 rank relative momentum leadership is not yet strong enough for the next action tier · Broadly stable
  5. Trigger 5 Reclaim EMA20 secondary repair secondary repair catalyst could add confirmation if the primary trigger develops · Broadly stable

Who's Tradingthe flow behind the priceTop ↑

Insider activity

ActivityInsider selling
Buy filings0
Sell filings2
Shares sold7,924
Value sold$2.2m
Latest sell2026-08-11
FiledInsiderSharesValue
2026-08-11 Sold Cook Gregory BCo-COO - Global Businesses 4,567 $1,302,300
2026-07-30 Sold Kirkland Scott DCHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER 3,357 $929,755

Open-market Form 4 purchases and sales over the last 75 days, read from SEC EDGAR Form 4. Grants, option exercises, gifts and shares withheld for tax are excluded — they are compensation mechanics, not a decision to buy or sell. Reported Form 4 activity. Brown Bear tested insider cluster-buying as a return signal and rejected it as era-unstable; shown as fact, not signal.

Volume confirmation

Volume-price trend Above its signal line
Confirmation Marginal

No absorption or distribution event in the recent window.

Takeaway Slightly more shares change hands on rising days than on falling ones, but the gap is too small to read anything into.

Options Positioning

No binary-event flag

ECL: no binary-event flag. Near IV 26%, far IV 23% (ratio 1.12), implied move 3.3%.

Implied volatility 26% near (9d) · 23% far (65d) — Term structure inverted — the market is pricing an event in the near window
Term structure 1.12× near/far
Historical volatility 24%
Implied vs historical 1.07×
Implied move ±3.3% by 2026-08-21
Implied move vs ATR 0.52×
Skew Flat (0.93×)
Call wall 300.00 (+6.9% away)
Put wall 270.00 (-3.8% away)
Gamma pin 270.00
  • Term structure inverted (near 26% IV vs far 23% IV, ratio 1.12)

Takeaway Insuring against a move in this stock costs more for the next few weeks than for the next few months. Traders usually pay up like that when they know something is coming soon — results, a court ruling, a regulatory decision. Options traders are positioned for a move of around 3.3% in either direction by 2026-08-21.

Chain as at 2026-08-12. This is a risk read on whether a specific event is being priced — not a directional view.

Context & Methodthe record, and how it was builtTop ↑

Relative Rotation

ImprovingLeadingLaggingWeakeningvs sectorvs SPYsector vs SPYRS-Ratio →RS-Momentum →

Sector Headwind / Stock Mixed

Rotation health 69.4/100; Positive Rotation.

Rotation health 69.4
Rotation strength 52.7
LegQuadrantRS-RatioRS-Mom
Stock vs sector Improving 89.3 113.8
Stock vs SPY Improving 93.2 110.8
Sector vs SPY Leading 106.7 101.2

Direction of travel: North / momentum improving

Position only. Brown Bear's RRG redesign programme is closed — five constructions, none beat an appropriate null — so this section describes where the name sits, and is not a signal.

News Headlines

  1. Loading headlines\u2026

Headlines are supplied by third-party feeds and are not written, ranked or interpreted by Brown Bear. They feed no score on this page.

Detailed Scoring

Positive signals

  • Piotroski F-score 4/9 (+5.0)
  • Altman Z-score 4.99 (+8.0)
  • Insider conviction score (+5.0)
  • Gross margin quality: 44.2% (+8.9)
  • ROIC quality: 14.9% (+8.5)
  • FCF margin quality: 18.4% (+12.2)
  • High earnings quality (accrual ratio -0.036) (+2.0)
  • Accrual ratio improving (-0.03 -> -0.04) (+5.0)
  • Track 1: MACD histogram state (0.22) (+4.0)
  • Track 1: bullish DI spread 22.4 (+5.0)
  • Track 1: ADX 34.3 and rising (+8.0)
  • Track 1: EMA20 slope improving 1.0% (+2.4)
  • Track 1: positive MACD regime (+3.0)
  • Track 1: MACD line/signal repair quality (+8.0)
  • Track 1: MACD slope improving (+3.0)
  • Track 1: RSI recovery 66.8, 5-day change +7.5 (+1.5)
  • Track 1: VPT strength 0.02 (+0.5)
  • Track 1: price above EMA50 by 1.6% (+1.0)
  • Track 1: EMA50 slope improving 1.5% (+2.9)
  • Track 1: EMA50 support proximity 1.6% (+3.7)
  • Track 1: EMA200 support proximity 3.1% (+4.9)
  • Track 1: Bollinger position 0.55 (+3.6)
  • Regime convergence: SUPPORT_RESISTANCE_BOUNCE confidence 60.0/100 (EMERGING) (+12.0)

Negative signals

  • Track 1: weak volume confirmation (0.66x average)
  • Relative strength versus sector deteriorating
  • Weak relative momentum rank (0.37)
  • Track 1: price below EMA20 by 0.2%
  • Track 1: MACD histogram deteriorating (-0.92)
  • ROIC improving by -1.6 pts (+-5.0)

Chase risk is not elevated for this name, so extension penalties are omitted from the negative signals above.