Ecolab reports Q1 EPS $1.34, consensus $1.33

Reports Q1 revenue $3.752B, consensus $3.75B…Christophe Beck, Ecolab’s chairman and chief executive officer, said, “As expected, we kicked off the year with very strong performance as our team continued to execute very well. Good organic sales growth was driven by new business wins and value-based pricing, demonstrating the increased value we create for our customers. We leveraged this growth with 400 basis points of organic operating income margin expansion to deliver very strong growth in earnings per share. We remain firmly on our long-term 12-15% earnings growth trajectory, with our exceptional growth in the first quarter the result of strong fundamentals and the additional benefit of lower delivered product costs. “We are also pleased to announce the sale of our global surgical solutions business. This transaction builds on the deliberate actions we’ve taken to lay the foundation to transform our global healthcare business into a high-quality Ecolab business. It enables us to both deliver for our shareholders and provide more dedicated service to our important hospital customers, leveraging our leading environmental hygiene, instrument reprocessing offering, and water technologies.