St. Paul-based Ecolab reported strong first quarter results and said it plans to build on the momentum for the rest of the year.
The provider of water, hygiene and infection prevention products and services earned $233.4 million, or 82 cents a share. It was a 36% increase over the $171.9 million it earned in the same period a year ago.
Sales rose 9% to $3.6 billion. Adjusting for significant foreign currency translations, they increased 12%. Adjusted earnings were 88 cents a share, up 7% from the year ago quarter. Both beat analyst estimates.
"Looking ahead, we are well-positioned to build on our operating momentum and expect further performance improvement in 2023," said Christophe Beck, chairman and CEO of Ecolab Inc. "While the macroeconomic headwinds and inflationary pressures are expected to persist, our focus remains on offense."
Price gains and improved productivity offset inflationary pressure helping organic operating income increase 19% to $376.1 million.
Strongest organic sales growth came from the company's Global Institutional and Specialty segment, which was up 14%, compared with 12% and 9% organic sales gains, respectively, in the Global Industrial and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences segments.
The company says it expects adjusted diluted earnings per share to grow faster than the first quarter growth of 7%. Adjusted EPS is expected to grow 5% to 14% from the second quarter of 2022, or in the range of $1.15 to $1.25 a share.
Shares of Ecolab were trading at $169.35 a share, up less than 1% in early trading Tuesday. Shares have traded between $131.04 and $178.06 a share over the last 52 weeks.
