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Ecolab reported second quarter 2026 results showing reported sales of $4.4 billion, up 10%, with organic sales growth accelerating to 5%. The company posted reported diluted earnings per share of $1.90, up 3%, and adjusted diluted EPS of $2.09, representing 11% growth. The St Paul-based water and hygiene solutions provider raised its full-year 2026 adjusted diluted EPS outlook to a range of $8.05 to $8.25, representing 7% to 10% growth. This exceeded prior expectations of $8.03 to $8.23. Growth was driven by strong volume increases despite Middle East disruptions, improved pricing and productivity gains that offset rising commodity costs. The company's reported operating income margin reached 17.2%, whilst organic operating income margin stood at 18.8%, up 40 basis points. Ecolab expects third quarter 2026 adjusted diluted EPS between $2.13 and $2.23, representing 3% to 8% growth.

Ecolab Q2 earnings call highlights. July 28, 2026 Key points. * Ecolab raised its full-year 2026 adjusted EPS outlook to $8.05-$8.25, representing 7%-10% growth, after reporting 11% adjusted EPS growth and 5% organic sales growth in the second quarter. * Growth was led by Life Sciences, Ecolab Digital, Pest Elimination and Global High-Tech, with Global High-Tech sales rising 29% amid demand from data centers and artificial-intelligence infrastructure. The company expects its expanded platform, including CoolIT and Ovivo, to reach $4 billion in sales by 2030. * Ecolab expects second-half organic sales growth of 6%-7% and pricing growth of 5%-6% as energy surcharges take full effect, supporting its target of reaching a 20% operating-income margin in 2027. * MarketBeat previews the top five stocks to own by August 1st. Ecolab NYSE: ECL reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings-per-share growth of 11%, supported by 5% organic sales growth, stable organic gross margin and productivity gains, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Christophe Beck said on the company's earnings call. The company said pricing strengthened to 4% during the quarter as it implemented a global energy surcharge intended to offset higher commodity costs. Ecolab entered the period with limited surcharge pricing and expected the benefit to build during the quarter. Beck said the company now expects pricing in the 5% to 6% range during the second half as surcharge benefits are fully realized. Volumes increased 1%, despite what Ecolab described as an approximately 1% headwind from customer operations disrupted by conflict in the Middle East. Excluding that impact, Beck said underlying volume growth accelerated from the first quarter. Growth engines lead portfolio momentum. Ecolab said its Food and Beverage business accelerated to 7% growth, while Institutional & Specialty grew 4% and Light Water improved. The company attributed growth in part to new business from its One Ecolab Growth initiative, which combines capabilities across businesses to expand cross-selling opportunities. Among its growth engines, Life Sciences grew 15%, driven by share gains in bioprocessing, pharmaceutical and personal-care markets, as well as improved purification performance. Beck said Life Sciences delivered a mid-20% operating-income margin in the second quarter, aided by strong sales and a spike in bioprocessing. He added that underlying margins should remain in the mid-20% range, although reported third-quarter margin is expected in the high teens as the company continues investing in capacity and capabilities. The Life Sciences business has grown from less than $100 million in 2017 to nearly $1 billion currently, according to Beck. He said Ecolab has expanded production capacity across North America, Europe and Asia, including the opening of a major plant in China. The company continues to target a roughly 30% operating-income margin for the business at scale, while emphasizing continued investment ahead of growth. Discover more Derivatives Options Profit Calculator Dividend Screener Tool Ecolab Digital grew 27% in the quarter, reflecting adoption of connected software and operational tools including DishIQ, AquaIQ, KitchenIQ and CIP IQ. Beck said the digital business is approaching a $500 million annual revenue run rate and has a potential $3 billion revenue opportunity from connecting customer locations and applications and generating subscription revenue from those offerings. Pest Elimination grew 7%, supported by share gains and expansion of its Pest Intelligence platform. Ecolab said it has deployed nearly 800,000 connected devices and expects to exceed 1 million by year-end. High-Tech business expands with CoolIT. Global High-Tech sales grew 29% as demand rose in microelectronics and data centers amid the buildout of artificial-intelligence infrastructure. Ecolab completed its acquisition of liquid-cooling provider CoolIT Systems on July 2. Beck said CoolIT's year-to-date sales growth before the acquisition exceeded 100%. Ecolab's Global High-Tech platform is approaching $1.5 billion in annualized sales, consisting of roughly $500 million each from its legacy high-tech operations, CoolIT and Ovivo, Beck said. The company expects the combined Global High-Tech platform to grow more than 25% annually and reach $4 billion in sales by 2030, with a 25% operating-income margin. Those targets were raised from previous expectations for more than 20% growth and a 20% margin. On a pro forma basis including Ovivo and CoolIT, Ecolab said company sales growth would have been about 7% in the second quarter, with the acquired businesses adding roughly two percentage points of growth. Beck said Ecolab plans to introduce an integrated cooling platform at the Supercomputing conference that combines CoolIT's liquid-cooling technology with Ecolab's 3D TRASAR digital capabilities. The company will hold an investor day at the Supercomputing conference in Chicago on Nov. 17, when it expects to provide further detail on Global High-Tech's outlook. Beck said Ecolab is still early in integrating CoolIT and continues to use a 30% long-term growth assumption for the acquired business. Margins, investment and outlook. Ecolab expects organic sales growth of 6% to 7% in the second half, with adjusted operating-income margin of 19%. The company said that trajectory keeps it on track to achieve a 20% operating-income margin next year. Chief Financial Officer Scott Kirkland said Ecolab expects commodity costs to remain at high-single-digit levels for the balance of 2026. He also noted that Ovivo reduced reported gross margin by about 60 basis points in the second quarter, while Ecolab's organic gross margin excluding Ovivo was stable. The company expects capital expenditures to remain around 7% of sales over the next several years as it invests ahead of growth in Global High-Tech and Life Sciences, Kirkland said. He added that Ecolab remains focused on increasing organic return on invested capital by at least 100 basis points annually and expects to return to pre-CoolIT acquisition organic ROIC levels by 2028. Ecolab raised its full-year 2026 adjusted EPS outlook to a range of $8.05 to $8.25, representing growth of 7% to 10% from the prior year. The forecast includes the near-term effects of non-cash amortization and financing costs associated with the CoolIT acquisition. Beyond 2026, Beck said the company continues to expect adjusted EPS growth, including CoolIT, to accelerate to a 12% to 15% trajectory. About Ecolab (NYSE:ECL). Ecolab, Inc is a global provider of water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services. The company develops and supplies cleaning and sanitizing chemicals, dispensing equipment, water-treatment systems, pest elimination services and related technologies designed to help businesses maintain clean, safe and efficient operations. Its offerings span both products and onsite services, often paired with technical support and training. Ecolab serves a broad range of end markets including hospitality and foodservice, food and beverage processing, healthcare, manufacturing and industrial operations, and energy and utilities. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. Before you consider Ecolab, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Ecolab wasn't on the list. While Ecolab currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. The AI boom extends far beyond the biggest tech names. Discover 10 companies supplying the memory, storage, networking, semiconductor manufacturing, and power infrastructure that make AI possible. Learn where the next wave of AI investment opportunities may emerge - and the key risks investors should watch as the global AI buildout accelerates.

Ecolab closes CoolIT $4.75bn acquisition to scale AI cooling. July 03, 2026 The $4.75bn transaction positions Ecolab to provide direct liquid cooling for hyperscale data centres alongside its established water technology division Ecolab has finalised its acquisition of CoolIT Systems for approximately US$4.75bn. The transaction gives the water technologies firm direct access to the data centre market through CoolIT's liquid cooling architecture. The deal closed earlier than anticipated, completing a strategic move to capitalise on accelerating demand for liquid cooling within AI infrastructure. CoolIT has recorded year-to-date sales growth exceeding 100%. The acquisition merges Ecolab's industrial water treatment background with CoolIT's specialised hardware. The combined entity targets the entire AI value chain, providing ultra-pure water for semiconductor manufacturing, water systems for power generation and direct liquid cooling for AI data centres. Integrating liquid cooling systems. The integration of both companies will yield new hardware and software combinations aimed at the high-performance computing sector. Ecolab intends to launch a combined product at the Supercomputing conference in Chicago in November 2026. The planned release is an end-to-end 3D TRASAR cooling platform that integrates CoolIT's cooling distribution units and cold plates with Ecolab's digital optimisation software and advanced cooling fluids. The world is asking the right questions about how data centres are built, especially around water and energy. The answer is not to slow innovation. It is to build it better. Christophe Beck, Chairman, President and CEO of Ecolab This platform aims to optimise water, compute performance and power at scale. Operators will receive real-time visibility into system metrics to reduce cooling power demand and increase power efficiency. The technology relies on closed-loop systems to push data centre facilities toward a near-zero water footprint, supporting advanced architectures like NVIDIA Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell. Discussing the acquisition on LinkedIn, Christophe Beck, Chairman, President and CEO of Ecolab, says: "CoolIT is a global leader in direct-to-chip liquid cooling for high-density data centres, with deep expertise, strong partnerships across the AI ecosystem and a world-class team. "AI is reshaping how the world operates and competes. As AI infrastructure rapidly expands, so does the need to operate it more efficiently and at scale. Water is at the heart of it all. It is needed to produce chips, power and cool them." Collaborating with hyperscale customers. Ecolab and CoolIT will continue working alongside hyperscale operators to support next-generation AI data centre designs. The objective is to increase AI deployment speeds while managing power and water consumption. The companies already hold established relationships with major hardware manufacturers. NVIDIA Technical Director and Distinguished Engineer Ali Heydari, alongside Saket Karajgikar, Senior Engineering Manager and ASME Fellow at NVIDIA, say: "NVIDIA has collaborated with Ecolab and CoolIT across a broad range of liquid-cooling initiatives, including coolant qualification, coolant health monitoring, cooling infrastructure development and next-generation AI factory technologies. "Through collaborations spanning NVIDIA engineering labs, research programmes and large-scale AI infrastructure deployments, Ecolab and CoolIT have consistently demonstrated strong technical expertise, innovation and responsiveness." Financial targets and EPS guidance. The acquisition significantly alters the financial trajectory of Ecolab's Global High-Tech division. In 2021, the business unit generated roughly US$150m in annual sales. Following the additions of Ovivo and CoolIT, the division is approaching US$1.5bn in annualised sales for 2026. Ecolab has set a target for the Global High-Tech business to reach US$4bn in annual sales by 2030 with operating income margins of 25%. This division represents Ecolab's primary growth driver. Growing over 25% annually, it is projected to add more than two percentage points to total annual sales growth. Highlighting the environmental strategy, Christophe says: "With Ecolab's breakthrough solutions across fabs, power and data centres, AI can now scale more rapidly while respecting communities, the environment and natural resources. "With strong and consistent core businesses and new growth engines in high tech and life sciences that capture major new trends, Data Centre Magazine has never been better positioned to deliver on its growth commitments. "We therefore remain confident in our ability to drive sustained organic revenue growth of 5% to 7%, operating income margins well beyond 20%, and consistent EPS growth of 12% to 15% for the years to come." Ecolab has updated its 2026 EPS guidance to reflect the CoolIT transaction. Taking into account short-term impacts from non-cash amortisation and financing costs, the company expects its 2026 adjusted diluted EPS to sit between $8.03 and $8.23. This represents a growth of 7% to 9% compared to 2025. During the second half of 2026, Ecolab expects organic sales growth to accelerate to between 6% and 7%. Addressing environmental constraints. Hardware and cooling vendors are actively adjusting their supply chains to balance compute density with resource efficiency. "With CoolIT, we can now deliver fully integrated, end-to-end solutions that maximise data centre performance while reducing water and energy use," says Christophe on LinkedIn. "The world is asking the right questions about how data centres are built, especially around water and energy. The answer is not to slow innovation. It is to build it better." Executives. * Ali Heydari Director of Technical Design * Christophe Beck Chairman and CEO * Saket Karajgikar Senior Engineering Manager and ASME Fellow Company Portals