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ECL, Ecolab Inc.

Chemicals consumer brand Serial acquirer

We deliver sustainable solutions that help companies around the world achieve their business goals while reducing environmental impacts.

A trusted partner for millions of customers, we are a global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services that protect people and the resources vital to life.

For more than a century, we have advanced innovation by integrating science-based solutions, data-driven insights, AI-technology and world-class service.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

ECL · Ecolab Inc.

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025

$16.1B

+2.2% YoY · 6% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $16.5B 5-yr avg $14.8B

Gross margin 44% 5-yr avg 41%

Operating margin 17.0% 5-yr avg 14.3%

ROIC 13% 5-yr avg 11%

Owner-earnings margin 14% 5-yr avg 12%

Free cash flow margin 11% 5-yr avg 11%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What it is: Revenue is led by Global Water (50%) and Global Institutional and Specialty (38%), with 2 more segments behind.
Situation: Serial acquirer. Goodwill and acquired intangibles are 52% of assets, with meaningful acquisition spending in 5 of the record's 10 years; much of what this business is was bought, at prices the record carries.
What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 42% and operating margin about 14% through the cycle, a solid spread between what it charges and what the product costs to make. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has sat near the cost of capital (median 10%). By owner earnings: roughly 12% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Revenue spreads across 4 segments, the largest Global Water at 50%.

Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025

Global Water50%$8.0B
Global Institutional and Specialty38%$6.1B
Global Pest Elimination8%$1.2B
Global Life Sciences5%$748M

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2016’16	2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	TTMTTMMar 2026
											Income statement
$13.2B	$13.8B	$12.2B	$12.6B	$11.8B	$12.7B	$14.2B	$15.3B	$15.7B	$16.1B	$16.5B	RevenueRevenue
43%	42%	44%	44%	41%	40%	38%	40%	43%	44%	44%	Gross marginGross mgn
28%	28%	29%	28%	28%	27%	26%	27%	27%	26%	26%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
1%	1%	2%	2%	2%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	R&D / revenueR&D/rev
$1.9B	$2.0B	$1.7B	$1.8B	$1.4B	$1.6B	$1.6B	$2.0B	$2.8B	$2.7B	$2.8B	Operating incomeOp. inc.
14.2%	14.1%	14.1%	14.7%	11.8%	12.6%	11.0%	13.0%	17.8%	17.0%	17.0%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$1.2B	$1.5B	$1.4B	$1.6B	($1.2B)	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.4B	$2.1B	$2.1B	$2.1B	Net incomeNet inc.
25%	14%	18%	16%	—	19%	18%	21%	17%	18%	18%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$1.9B	$2.1B	$2.3B	$2.4B	$1.9B	$2.1B	$1.8B	$2.4B	$2.8B	$3.0B	$3.0B	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$561M	$586M	$536M	$569M	$594M	$604M	$619M	$617M	$635M	$673M	$692M	DepreciationDeprec.
$64M	($90M)	$225M	$209M	$2.4B	$238M	($10M)	$328M	($68M)	$68M	$97M	Working capital & otherWC & other
$757M	$869M	$779M	$731M	$489M	$643M	$713M	$775M	$995M	$1.0B	$1.2B	CapexCapex
5.8%	6.3%	6.4%	5.8%	4.1%	5.0%	5.0%	5.1%	6.3%	6.5%	7.0%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$1.4B	$1.5B	$1.7B	$1.9B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.1B	$1.8B	$2.2B	$2.3B	$2.3B	Owner earningsOwner earn.
10.5%	10.9%	14.3%	14.7%	11.6%	11.1%	7.6%	11.7%	13.8%	14.2%	14.2%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.5B	$1.7B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.1B	$1.6B	$1.8B	$1.9B	$1.9B	Free cash flowFCF
9.0%	8.8%	12.3%	13.4%	11.6%	11.1%	7.6%	10.7%	11.6%	11.8%	11.4%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$85M	$989M	$230M	$391M	$487M	$3.9B	$7M	$180M	$313M	$1.6B	$1.6B	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$428M	$449M	$495M	$553M	$561M	$566M	$603M	$617M	$664M	$754M	$778M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
$740M	$600M	$562M	$354M	$146M	$107M	$518M	$14M	$987M	$784M	—	BuybacksBuybacks
11%	11%	10%	10%	—	8%	8%	10%	15%	13%	13%	ROICROIC
18%	20%	18%	18%	-20%	16%	15%	17%	24%	21%	21%	Return on equityROE
12%	14%	12%	12%	−29%	8%	7%	9%	17%	14%	13%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$327M	$211M	$115M	$119M	$1.3B	$360M	$599M	$920M	$1.3B	$646M	$520M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$2.3B	$2.6B	$2.7B	$2.4B	$2.3B	$2.5B	$2.7B	$2.8B	$2.9B	$3.2B	$3.3B	ReceivablesReceiv.
$1.3B	$1.4B	$1.5B	$1.1B	$1.3B	$1.5B	$1.8B	$1.5B	$1.5B	$1.5B	$1.6B	InventoryInvent.
$983M	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.1B	$1.2B	$1.4B	$1.7B	$1.6B	$1.8B	$2.1B	$2.1B	Accounts payablePayables
$2.7B	$2.8B	$3.0B	$2.4B	$2.4B	$2.6B	$2.8B	$2.8B	$2.5B	$2.7B	$2.8B	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$4.3B	$4.6B	$4.7B	$4.8B	$5.1B	$4.7B	$5.5B	$5.6B	$6.0B	$6.0B	$6.0B	Current assetsCur. assets
$3.0B	$3.5B	$3.7B	$3.6B	$2.9B	$3.6B	$4.2B	$4.3B	$4.8B	$5.5B	$6.1B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.4×	1.3×	1.3×	1.3×	1.7×	1.3×	1.3×	1.3×	1.3×	1.1×	1.0×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$6.4B	$7.2B	$5.4B	$5.6B	$6.0B	$8.1B	$8.0B	$8.1B	$7.9B	$9.2B	$9.4B	GoodwillGoodwill
$18.3B	$20.0B	$20.1B	$20.9B	$18.1B	$21.2B	$21.5B	$21.8B	$22.4B	$24.7B	$25.0B	Total assetsAssets
$6.7B	$7.3B	$6.7B	$6.3B	$6.7B	$8.3B	$8.6B	$8.2B	$7.6B	$8.1B	$8.2B	Total debtDebt
$6.3B	$7.1B	$6.6B	$6.2B	$5.4B	$8.0B	$8.0B	$7.3B	$6.3B	$7.5B	$7.7B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
6.6×	7.1×	7.3×	8.6×	4.6×	6.9×	6.2×	5.7×	8.2×	8.9×	9.0×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$6.9B	$7.6B	$8.0B	$8.7B	$6.2B	$7.2B	$7.2B	$8.0B	$8.8B	$9.8B	$10.0B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
0.7%	0.7%	0.7%	0.7%	0.7%	0.7%	0.6%	0.6%	0.9%	0.8%	0.8%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
297M	294M	293M	293M	290M	289M	287M	287M	287M	285M	284M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$44.33	$47.06	$41.74	$42.95	$40.61	$44.04	$49.50	$53.47	$54.92	$56.39	$57.99	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$4.14	$5.12	$4.88	$5.33	$-4.15	$3.91	$3.81	$4.79	$7.37	$7.28	$7.42	EPS (diluted)EPS
$4.65	$5.12	$5.95	$6.33	$4.72	$4.91	$3.75	$6.27	$7.60	$7.99	$8.24	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$3.99	$4.16	$5.12	$5.78	$4.72	$4.91	$3.75	$5.71	$6.35	$6.68	$6.59	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$1.44	$1.53	$1.69	$1.89	$1.93	$1.96	$2.10	$2.15	$2.32	$2.64	$2.74	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$2.55	$2.95	$2.66	$2.50	$1.68	$2.22	$2.49	$2.70	$3.47	$3.68	$4.08	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$23.26	$25.79	$27.33	$29.69	$21.24	$24.99	$25.25	$28.08	$30.56	$34.26	$35.26	Book value / shareBVPS

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+2.7%/yr	+6.8%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+6.2%/yr	+11.1%/yr
EPS	+6.5%/yr	—
Dividends / share	+7.0%/yr	+6.5%/yr
Capital spending / share	+4.1%/yr	+16.9%/yr
Book value / share	+4.4%/yr	+10.0%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count

285Mpeak FY2016

ROIC

13%low FY2022

Gross margin

44%low FY2022

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

3.3×peak FY2022

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

$2.3Bowner earningsvs.$2.1Bnet incomelow FY2022

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cash

Each year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.

FY2016FY2025

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2021–FY2025cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2025 the business earned $2.3B of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $673M it takes just to hold its position. It put $376M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was $1.9B.

Reported net income$2.1B

Owner earnings$2.3B · 14% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$2.1B	$2.1B	$1.4B	$1.1B	$1.1B
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$673M	+$635M	+$617M	+$619M	+$604M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$137M	+$135M	+$95M	+$88M	+$90M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	+$68M	−$68M	+$328M	−$10M	+$238M
Cash from operations	$3.0B	$2.8B	$2.4B	$1.8B	$2.1B
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$673M	−$635M	−$617M	−$713M	−$643M
Owner earnings	$2.3B	$2.2B	$1.8B	$1.1B	$1.4B
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	−$376M	−$360M	−$158M	—	—
Free cash flow	$1.9B	$1.8B	$1.6B	$1.1B	$1.4B
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	14%	14%	12%	8%	11%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position (here about $673M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $376M of its capital spending is growth it chose, not upkeep it owed; charged only with the maintenance it must do, the business earns well more than the year's free cash flow shows. The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $137M), owner earnings is nearer $2.1B.

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 8.9×

Comfortable

Operating income $2.7B ÷ interest expense $306M

What this means
Operating profit covers interest with the kind of margin Graham wanted for a defensive holding. Necessary, not sufficient, it says solvent, not cheap.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $7.5B · 2.7× operating profit

Meaningful net debt

Cash $646M − debt $8.1B

What this means
Netting $646M of cash and short-term investments against $8.1B of debt leaves $7.5B owed, about 2.7× a year's operating profit (3.0× on the gross debt, before the cash). Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
How long is cash tied up? 50d

Tight

DSO 74 + DIO 61 − DPO 85 days

What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital 10%

Solid through the cycle

9-yr median, range 8%–15%; 13% latest = NOPAT $2.2B ÷ invested capital $17.2B

Industry peers: median 15%

What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 9 years (it ran 13% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
Owner-earnings margin 12%

Solid through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range 8%–15%; latest $2.3B = operating cash $3.0B − maintenance capex $673M

Industry peers: median 14%

What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 14% of revenue this year, a 12% median across 10 years. It chose to put $376M more into growth, so free cash flow this year was $1.9B — the gap is investment, not weakness. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $137M of SBC) leaves $2.1B.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.42×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $3.0B ÷ net income $2.1B

In the filing’s words The filing leans on adjusted, non-GAAP earnings, but the GAAP profit is itself cash-backed — the adjustments are not papering over a cash shortfall here.

What this means
How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? 67%

Returns about half

Dividends + buybacks $1.5B ÷ Owner Earnings $2.3B

What this means
Of $2.3B Owner Earnings, $1.5B (67%) went back to shareholders, $754M dividends, $784M buybacks. Net of $137M stock comp, the real buyback was about $647M. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.
Investing or harvesting? 1.56×

Expanding

Capex $1.0B ÷ depreciation $673M

What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 3 of 6 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

Adequate size Pass

Revenue ≥ $2B · $16.1B

What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
Strong liquidity Miss

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.08×

What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
Conservative debt Miss

Debt ≤ working capital · $8.1B vs $421M WC

What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
Earnings stability Near

A profit every year (10-yr record) · 1 loss year

What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
Dividend record Pass

Uninterrupted dividends · paid every year (10)

What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
Earnings growth Pass

Earnings +33% over the record · +34%

What this means
At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.
Moderate price —

P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price

What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $6.59/share (latest year $7.37), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $34.72/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2016–2025

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

Profitable years 9 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 1 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 1 of 10 yrs

What this means
A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.
Operating margin 14% → 16% (3-yr avg ends)

In the filing’s words Input costs rose and the filing says it recovered them in price — consistent with the margin holding here.

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin held roughly steady — about 14% early, 16% lately, median 14%.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital

What this means
The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.
Owner earnings growth +5%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 5% a year over the record.
Worst year 2022 · 11.0% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Share count −0.4%/yr

What this means
Roughly flat share count, little dilution, little buyback.
Dividend record rising

What this means
Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

The moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.

In its own filing Named as a competitive risk

Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat.

“AI technology is complex and rapidly evolving and may subject us to significant competitive, legal, regulatory, operational and other risks, including the following: Operational and Technical Risks : AI technologies are complex and rapidly evolving.”

AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat, and the company is using it that way.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$6.0B

Cash & short-term investments$520M
Receivables$3.3B
Inventory$1.6B
Other current assets$671M

Current liabilities$6.1B

Debt due within a year$1.6B
Accounts payable$2.1B
Other current liabilities$2.5B

Current ratio0.99×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.73×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.09×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital($53M)the cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$1.6B due · $520M cash cash alone won't cover the maturities; it leans on refinancing or operating cash · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+10.0%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters1.5× → 1.0×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value($3.0B)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($9.0B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$7.0B$580M of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

Debt maturity

the debt note, SEC EDGAR →

Not how much it owes, but when it falls due, and against what. The ladder the company files, beside cash on hand and a year's owner earnings.

'26$759M

'27$1.0B

'28$1.0B

'29$12M

'30$687M

Bars scaled to the largest single year.

Due in the next 12 months$759Mthe first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year

Within two years$1.8Bthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions

Biggest single year$1.0Bin 2028the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest

Due over the next five years$3.5Bthe near slice; the balance sheet carries $8.1B of debt in all

Against what the business has and earns

Cash & short-term investments, Mar 31, 2026$520M

One year of owner earnings (FY2025)$2.3B

Together, against $759M due next year3.7×

Cash on hand as of Mar 31, 2026 plus a year’s owner earnings comes to $2.8B against the $759M due in the twelve months after the Dec 31, 2025 schedule: 3.7 times it.

Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled to the balance-sheet debt.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $22.6B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.

Reinvested$7.8B · 34%
Dividends$5.7B · 25%
Buybacks$4.8B · 21%
Retained (debt / cash)$4.3B · 19%

Returned to owners$10.5B
63% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $5.7B as dividends and $4.8B as buybacks.
Average price paid for buybacks—
Buybacks ran $4.8B over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.
Net change in share count−4.4%
The diluted count fell from 297M to 284M, so the buybacks outran the stock issued to staff.
Dividend record$2.64/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 7% a year. It was never cut over the span.
Return on what it retained30%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($1.8B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $543M, so each retained $1 added about 0.30 of yearly owner earnings. Buffett's test, run on owner earnings instead of market value.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Acquisitions & goodwill

from the balance sheet & the 10-year cash-flow record

Goodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.

Goodwill & intangibles$12.9B52% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equity94%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital

Cash spent acquiring$8.2Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $7.8B of capital spent building

None written down over the record; the goodwill is still carried at full cost. That is the deals holding their value on the books so far; whether they keep doing so is the test an owner watches, since the write-down, when it comes, is the admission the price was too high.

Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 10-year record, from the company's own filings.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal year	Chief executive	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	Christophe Beck	$8.4M	$10.1M	$1.4B
2022	Christophe Beck	$8.7M	$2.6M	$1.1B
2023	Christophe Beck	$15.5M	$22.7M	$1.8B
2024	Christophe Beck	$16.4M	$30.1M	$2.2B
2025	Christophe Beck	$17.4M	$25.9M	$2.3B

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

Insider ownership0.5%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
Stock-based compensation$137M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 5% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why Ecolab Inc. is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2016–2025.

None of the 5 tests turned up a mark; each came back clean. A clean panel says only that these particular ways of being wrong are not written into the record.

Each test came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
Did the share count rise anyway?
Did debt outgrow the business?
Did reported profit become cash?
Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

Peers, Chemicals

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

Company	Revenue	Gross margin	Op. margin	ROIC	Owner earn. margin
CLColgate-Palmolive Co.	$20.4B	60%	21.9%	41%	17%
TEVATeva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited	$17.3B	48%	-2.2%	-2%	6%
ECLEcolab Inc.	$16.1B	42%	14.1%	10%	12%
KVUEKenvue Inc.	$15.1B	57%	16.1%	9%	10%
REGNRegeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.	$14.3B	—	34.6%	21%	31%
ELEstee Lauder Companies Inc. (The)	$14.3B	76%	14.4%	19%	12%
VTRSViatris	$14.3B	34%	2.5%	0%	14%
CHDChurch & Dwight Company Inc.	$6.2B	45%	19.2%	15%	17%
Group median	—	48%	15.3%	13%	13%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Ecolab Inc. has delivered.

Ecolab Inc.’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Ecolab Inc. earns about $1.9B on its 11.7% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 14.2% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($1.9B) Net of stock comp (−$135M) Steady-state · maintenance capex ($2.4B)

—

The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price—

Owner-earnings growth · ’21→’25+16%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+5%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)—

P/B—

Graham’s price gate—

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Free cash flow $1.9B on 281M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-03-31; net debt $7.7B. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. Capex ($1.2B) runs well above depreciation ($692M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $2.4B, the cash it would throw off if it stopped expanding. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh ECL against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Ecolab Inc. (ECL), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/ECL, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← ECHO its page in the Manual ECPG →

Industry order: ← DOW the Chemicals chapter ECVT →