ECOLAB INC.
ECL · Materials · $76.9B mkt cap · FY2025 filings · Shallow moat ·
Doesn't clear the bar
The four filters
Median gross margin 42.2% over 10y, very stable.
Median ROIC 10.3%, above the 9% hurdle in 80% of years.
Net debt/EBITDA 2.8x, interest coverage 9x.
Owner earnings +8.6%/yr, share count shrinking (buybacks).
Margin of safety
- Owner earnings (normalized)
- $597.5M
- Est. intrinsic value / share
- $38.14
- Recent price
- $272.83
- Discount to value
- 615% above value
Conservative model: 9% discount rate, 4% assumed growth (capped at 4%), maintenance capex ≈ min(capex, D&A).
20 years of fundamentals
The business, in plain English
ECOLAB INC. booked $16.1B of revenue in FY2025 in the Materials sector and kept 44.5% of it as gross profit — a solid-margin business by that measure. After every other cost, 12.9% of each revenue dollar reached the bottom line.
Across the filed record, revenue grew from $5.5B (FY2007) to $16.1B (FY2025) — about 6.2% a year compounded over 18 years.
It earned 13.0% on invested capital in FY2025, with a median of 10.3% across 19 filed years. The Returns on Capital filter above scores it 51/100.
The balance sheet carried $8.2B of total debt in FY2025 against $1.0B of owner earnings — roughly 8.0 years of owner earnings to retire it all. Balance-Sheet Safety scores it 34/100.
The share count rose 19.4% between FY2008 and FY2025 — existing owners have been diluted over the record. Capital Discipline scores it 75/100.
Put together: Capital Discipline is the strongest of the four filters (75/100) and Balance-Sheet Safety the weakest (34/100), which is how ECL lands at 58/100 — a Shallow moat.
This breakdown is generated from the filed numbers and sub-scores above — no outside narrative, no estimates. Where a filing doesn’t disclose an input, the sentence that would need it is omitted instead of guessed.
Gaps in a line mean that item isn’t in ECL’s filings for that year — the series is never interpolated or estimated. The Table view lists every filed value, including operating and net margins, total debt, and share count.
Moat Score history
Score history begins Jul 17, 2026 — the record builds from here and can’t be backfilled.
Tier changesSame-methodology crossings of the Wide / Narrow / Shallow bars
None yet — ECL has read Shallow moat for every logged capture since Jul 17, 2026.
Scores are logged append-only and never overwritten — this record can’t be backfilled, which is exactly why it’s worth keeping.
Materials context
#56 of 214 scored Materials companies, ranked by Moat Score.
Nearest peers by Moat Score
- #54FCX Freeport-McMoRan Inc.58.4 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
- #55VMC VULCAN MATERIALS COMPANY58.2 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
- #57CBT Cabot Corporation57.0 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
- #58CDE COEUR MINING, INC.56.7 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
Compare ECL with its nearest peers →All Materials companies on the Index →
Common questions about ECL
- Does ECOLAB INC. have an economic moat?
- Based on its FY2025 SEC filings, the Moat Index scores ECOLAB INC. (ECL) 58.1 out of 100 — a Shallow moat. The four filters behind that score (each 0–100): pricing power 70, returns on capital 51, balance-sheet safety 34, capital discipline 75.
- Is ECL stock trading below its intrinsic value?
- Against a deliberately conservative owner-earnings model (9% discount rate, 4% assumed growth, capped at 4%), estimated intrinsic value is $38.14 per share versus a recent price of $272.83 — 615% above value. This is an educational estimate computed from primary SEC filings, not investment advice.
- How has ECL's Moat Score changed over time?
- The record logs 3 readings since Jul 17, 2026; the latest reads 58.1 out of 100 (shallow moat). No tier changes on record yet. The history is append-only — readings are only ever added, never rewritten.