Ecolab on Tuesday forecast higher-than-expected adjusted profit for 2025 and beat fourth-quarter profit estimates, helped by resilient demand for its services such as water treatment, cleaning and sanitization.
The company's shares rose 6.4% in afternoon trade.
Ecolab posted better-than-expected results despite US manufacturing activity contracting further in December after falls in October and November."Growth in the United States, our largest and most profitable region, continues to be very strong, and growth across the rest of the world is solid as we more than offset uneven macroeconomic trends," CEO Christophe Beck said.
The company forecast adjusted profit between $7.42 per share and $7.62 per share in 2025, compared with analysts' average estimate of $7.40 apiece, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Beck said that the company hopes to expand its sales in 2025 to data center, microelectronic, life science and digital businesses.
"The rise of AI is prompting data centers to rethink the cooling strategy, leading to a shift from air cooled to liquid fluid servers," the company said in a conference call.
Water consumption needs in data centers have increased significantly as power-intensive graphics processing units used for AI and other high-performance computing, have greater cooling requirements than conventional servers.
In the October-December quarter, the company's biggest segment, global industrial, which provides water treatment and cleaning products and services to large industrial customers, saw a 10.8% rise in operating income to $374.6 million (€361 million).
Operating income in its global institutional and specialty segment, which makes cleaning and sanitizing products for customers such as quick-serving restaurant chains and food retailers, grew 18.5% from last year to $288.4 million (€278 million).
The Saint Paul, Minnesota-based company posted an adjusted profit of $1.81 per share for the quarter ended December 31, compared with analysts' estimate of $1.79 per share.
