Ecolab (ECL) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Ecolab published the results on October 27, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. Ecolab reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and adjusted, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• Ecolab completed its $4,750 million acquisition of CoolIT Systems, a data center liquid cooling company, on July 2, 2026, and bought Ovivo Electronics in the fourth quarter of 2025. Both are excluded from organic growth for their first twelve months.
• Segment figures here are at public currency rates, which sum to reported net sales. Ecolab manages its segments at fixed 2026 currency rates and reports those as its primary segment view.

Source: Ecolab Q3 2026 results, October 27, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How Ecolab splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• Ecolab's Global Water revenue was $2.5 billion in Q3 2026, up 21% from $2.1 billion in Q3 2025, 53% of total revenue.
• Ecolab's Global Institutional & Specialty revenue was $1.6 billion in Q3 2026, up 3% from $1.6 billion in Q3 2025, 35% of total revenue.
• Ecolab's Global Pest Elimination revenue was $364 million in Q3 2026, up 10% from $332 million in Q3 2025, 8% of total revenue.
• Ecolab's Global Life Sciences revenue was $214 million in Q3 2026, up 16% from $185 million in Q3 2025, 5% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

In its Q3 2026 release, Ecolab said:

“With continued strong pricing, further volume growth, and the acquisitions of Ovivo Electronics and CoolIT, Ecolab expects reported sales in the fourth quarter of 2026 to increase 12% to 14%.”

“Organic sales growth in the fourth quarter of 2026 is expected to remain strong in the 6% to 7% range.”

“Ecolab expects fourth quarter 2026 adjusted diluted earnings per share in the $2.13 to $2.23 range, rising 2% to 7% compared with adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.08 a year ago.”

“Ecolab expects full year 2026 adjusted diluted earnings per share to be in the $8.10 to $8.20 range, rising 8% to 9% versus last year.”

Source: Ecolab Q3 2026 release, Oct 27, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Oct 27, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the ECL forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

GAAP net sales and diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's release.

We do not hold a confirmed date for Ecolab's next report. Companies post the date on their investor relations site a few weeks ahead, usually with the time of the conference call.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Oct 27, 2026

Ecolab reports four segments. In Q3 2026 Global Water brought in $2,480.8 million of the $4,694.8 million total, Global Institutional & Specialty $1,636.5 million, Global Pest Elimination $363.6 million and Global Life Sciences $213.9 million. Product and equipment sales were $3,697.4 million and service and lease sales $997.4 million. (Ecolab Q3 2026 release, Oct 27, 2026)

Ecolab's reported sales rose 13%, but $244.9 million of that came from acquisitions, mainly Ovivo Electronics and CoolIT. Organic sales, which strip out acquisitions and currency, grew 7% to $4,452.3 million, with volume up 2% and pricing up 5%. Ecolab said pricing was raised to offset higher commodity costs, and it began an energy surcharge in the second quarter of 2026 after the war in the Middle East pushed up raw material and logistics costs. (Ecolab Q3 2026 release, Oct 27, 2026; Ecolab Q3 2026 supplemental presentation, Oct 27, 2026; Ecolab Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 29, 2026)

Global Water is where the growth was. Its fixed currency sales rose 20%, including an 11% benefit from the Ovivo Electronics and CoolIT acquisitions, and organic growth was 9%, led by 63% organic growth in Global High-Tech, which serves microelectronics and data centers. Food & Beverage grew 8%. The 10-K describes the segment as water treatment and cleaning programs sold mainly to large industrial customers, from food processing and power generation to refining, mining and paper. (Ecolab Q3 2026 release, Oct 27, 2026; Ecolab Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 23, 2026)

Institutional & Specialty, which sells cleaning and sanitation to restaurants, hotels and food retail, grew 3% while Ecolab cited a mid-single-digit decline in North American restaurant foot traffic. Life Sciences grew 17% on share gains in bioprocessing, personal care and purification, and Pest Elimination grew 9%. (Ecolab Q3 2026 release, Oct 27, 2026)

The United States made up 52% of Ecolab's revenue in the first nine months of 2026, against 54% a year earlier. In Q3, Institutional & Specialty sales in India, the Middle East and Africa were $25.3 million against $50.8 million a year earlier, while Global Water sales in Greater China rose to $172.2 million from $124.4 million. (Ecolab Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 29, 2026)

Ecolab's GAAP diluted EPS fell 5% to $1.95 in Q3 2026 while adjusted diluted EPS rose 5% to $2.18. The $0.23 gap is special gains and charges after tax, $65.2 million, mostly acquisition and integration costs and One Ecolab restructuring. Adjusted EPS also excludes discrete tax items, which were $0.00 per share this quarter against a $0.06 benefit a year earlier. (Ecolab Q3 2026 release, Oct 27, 2026)

Financing the acquisitions weighed on both measures. Net interest expense rose to $124.8 million from $55.3 million, and Ecolab said CoolIT acquisition-related amortization and financing costs were an approximate 10% headwind to adjusted EPS growth. Corporate amortization of acquired intangibles was $79.1 million, including $20 million for CoolIT and $28 million for the Nalco merger. (Ecolab Q3 2026 release, Oct 27, 2026)

Diluted shares were 282.1 million against 285.4 million a year earlier. Ecolab repurchased 2,442,820 shares in the open market in the first nine months of 2026, and 3,454,001 shares remained under its authorization at September 30. The reported tax rate was 20.2% and the adjusted rate 20.4%. (Ecolab Q3 2026 release, Oct 27, 2026; Ecolab Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 29, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

Ecolab gives an outlook in its release. For Q4 2026 it expects reported sales to rise 12% to 14%, organic sales growth of 6% to 7%, an adjusted operating income margin of about 19% and adjusted diluted EPS of $2.13 to $2.23, against $2.08 a year earlier. It said that range includes an approximate 12 percentage point headwind from CoolIT amortization and financing costs. (Ecolab Q3 2026 release, Oct 27, 2026)

For full year 2026 Ecolab expects adjusted diluted EPS of $8.10 to $8.20, up 8% to 9%, and special charges of about $0.83 per share. For 2027 its chief executive said Ecolab expects organic sales growth at the upper end of its 5% to 7% target and an adjusted operating income margin of 20%. (Ecolab Q3 2026 release, Oct 27, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Ecolab, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Ecolab's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning ECL is on is ECL a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the ECL forecast, and what the company does is on the Ecolab (ECL) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Ecolab published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.