Ecolab Inc. — Earnings Quality Grade F
ECL · Basic Materials
Major red flags
Screening Summary
Financial Trends
Revenue & Net Income ($B)
Margins (%)
18-Point Screening
Revenue Quality
DSO 74 days, change +7 days YoY
AR growth 13.4% exceeds revenue growth 2.2%
Revenue 2.2%, CFFO 4.9%. Cash follows revenue
Expense Quality
Inventory 1.7% vs COGS 0.3%. Normal
CapEx growth 5.4% vs revenue 2.2%. Normal
SG&A/Gross Profit = 59.5%. Normal
Gross margin 44.5%, change +1.0pp. Stable
Cash Flow Quality
CFFO/NI = 1.42. Profits backed by cash
FCF $1.9B, FCF/NI = 0.92
Accruals ratio = -3.6%. Low accruals
Cash $0.6B covers only 7% of debt $9.0B
Balance Sheet Health
Goodwill+Intangibles $12.9B = 132% of equity. Over 50%
Debt/EBITDA = 2.3x. Healthy
Other assets grew 30.0% vs revenue 2.2%
No write-off data
Acquisition Risk
FCF after acquisitions positive
Goodwill+Intangibles change 15% YoY. Normal
Manipulation Score
M-Score = -2.51 (< -2.22). Unlikely manipulator
Beneish M-Score
Altman Z-Score
Generated from public financial data using forensic accounting frameworks. Not investment advice. Data: Yahoo Finance · 2026-04-10