Optimism surrounds Ecolab, as it gets ready to report its third quarter results on Tuesday, October 28, 2014. Analysts are expecting the company to book a profit of $1.21 a share, up from $1.04 a year ago.
The consensus estimate has risen from three months ago when it was $1.20. It hasn't been adjusted since. Analysts are expecting earnings of $4.18 per share for the fiscal year. Revenue is projected to eclipse the year-earlier total of $3.48 billion by 7%, finishing at $3.73 billion for the quarter. For the year, revenue is projected to come in at $14.44 billion.
The company has been profitable for the last eight quarters, and for the last four, profit has risen year-over-year by an average of 19%. The biggest gain came in the third quarter with a 29% surge.
Revenue has grown for three quarters in a row. The 2% revenue increase brought the figure up to $3.57 billion in the most recent quarter. Looking back further, revenue increased 16% in the first quarter from the year earlier and 17% in the fourth quarter.
The majority of analysts (80%) rate Ecolab as a buy. This compares favorably to the analyst ratings of five similar companies, which average 24% buys.
Ecolab develops and markets cleaning and sanitizing products and programs, pest elimination, maintenance, and repair services for the hospitality, foodservice, healthcare and industrial markets. Zep, also in the personal and household prods. industry, will report earnings on Thursday, October 30, 2014. Analysts are expecting earnings of 26 cents per share for Zep, down 7% from last year's earnings of 28 cents per share. Other companies in the personal and household prods. industry with upcoming earnings release dates include: Clorox and Ocean Bio-Chem.
Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.
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