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Forensic Analysis · Household & Personal Care Products · as of Nov 7, 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, not compounding
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
1
Forensic signals
22.4%
ROE
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 (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). 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, not compounding) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.2, placing it in the Safe zone. 1 forensic signal was flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

12.4%
FY2025
Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 12.4% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from 9.2%. After-tax operating profit was $1.6B in FY2023 and $2.2B in FY2025, with operating income at 13.0% of revenue in FY2023, 17.8% in FY2024 and 17.0% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $17.2B in FY2023 to $18.2B in FY2025 (+6%), while the revenue it carried went from $15.3B to $16.1B. Across FY2024–FY2025, $4.0B went into capital expenditure and acquisitions against $1.3B of depreciation. The base is struck net of amortisation, write-downs and the current liabilities that fund it, so it moved by less than that spending net of the wear, and this row does not say which of those absorbed the difference.

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 Equity22.4%
Debt / Equity0.84x

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Nov 7, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.

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