Ecolab Inc. provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Global Water, Global Institutional & Specialty, Global Pest Elimination, and Global Life Sciences. The Global Water segment offers water treatment and process applications, and cleaning and sanitizing solutions to manufacturing, food and beverage processing, transportation, chemical, primary …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
ROIC Sustainably Above PeersROIC at 83.6th percentile exceeds peers and WACC, demonstrating superior capital allocation.
Margins Consistently Above PeersGross margin at 44.5% (top 13%) and operating margin at 17.0% (top 9%) indicate strong pricing power.
Key risks
Liquidity ConcernsLiquidity is concerning (score 0.07), raising questions about short-term obligations.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Ecolab Inc. ranks #5 of 56
scored companies in Specialty Chemicals by moat score — the top 9%.
The widest moat in the group is WD-40 Company (WDFC)
at 81/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near ECL in Specialty Chemicals
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 56
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 89
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 85
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 54
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 87
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
Ecolab Inc. (ECL) scores 75 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #5 of 56 scored companies in Specialty Chemicals, the top 9%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 56 companies in Specialty Chemicals. Its strongest defense is Customer Stickiness (89/100) and its weakest is Resilience (54/100).
How does Ecolab Inc. compare with other Specialty Chemicals companies?
Ecolab Inc. ranks #5 of 56 scored companies in Specialty Chemicals by moat score. The widest moat in Specialty Chemicals is WD-40 Company (WDFC) at 81/100. The companies ranked closest are NewMarket Corp (NEU) at 80 just above it and Sherwin-Williams Company (The) (SHW) at 74 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 56 companies in Specialty Chemicals. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Ecolab Inc. scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Ecolab Inc.?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and ECL scores: Pricing Power (76), Cost Advantage (56), Customer Stickiness (89), Capital Efficiency (85), Resilience (54), Scale & Market Position (87). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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