Ecolab Inc. (ECL) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Consumer Staples / Food & Beverage · as of Sep 24, 2026
Ecolab Inc. (ECL)
A forensic read on Ecolab Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
A · High-quality, modest growth
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
8.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
35.7
P / E (ttm)
21.2%
ROE
$77.6B
Market cap
1.13%
Dividend yield
2.2%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Ecolab Inc. earns an A (High-quality, modest growth) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 8.0, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+14.1%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +14.1% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by PP&E up +14% against revenue +2% and receivables up +13% against revenue +2%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 5% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 14.1%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.
11.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 11.6% in the latest fiscal year, against 9% in FY2023, having run between 9.2% and 13.7% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. The capital base behind it grew +13% across FY2023–FY2025, from $17.2B to $19.4B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 9% the older base was already earning.
-0.2%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed 0% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (-0.2%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks ($784M) are about offsetting stock comp ($137M), not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$16.08B
Revenue Growth YoY+2.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+2.5%
Net Margin12.9%
Free Cash Flow$1.90B
Return on Equity21.2%
Debt / Equity0.84x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Ecolab Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?