Ecolab (NYSE: ECL) reported Q4 EPS of $1.28, $0.03 worse than the analyst estimate of $1.31. Revenue for the quarter came in at $3.35 billion versus the consensus estimate of $3.36 billion.

2022 Business Outlook

We move into 2022 with strong business momentum. With very healthy sales growth, robust new business wins, new innovation and increased pricing, we expect to progressively compensate for higher delivered product costs and to drive strong earnings growth. While we expect a decent global economy, we also expect the COVID impacts to remain significant during the first half of the year, and we expect inflation to remain high before it progressively eases during the second half of the year.

We expect these cost impacts to remain especially strong in the first quarter of 2022, even slightly higher than those experienced in the fourth quarter. We look for the first quarter to show healthy sales growth and a flattish year-over-year earnings per share comparison impacted by continued high raw material and freight costs.

For the full year 2022, we believe our sales, pricing and cost efficiency actions will enable us to deliver continued strong sales gains with adjusted diluted earnings per share growth reaching low-teens levels, assuming once again that inflation and supply constraints ease as the year progresses. We continue to expect the impact of Purolite, including $0.26 per share of transaction-related amortization, will be neutral to 2022 adjusted diluted earnings per share.

We remain confident in our long-term outlook as our value proposition to help solve the world’s people, planet and business health needs is more important than ever. With our strong pricing and an inflationary environment that will ease ultimately and lead to higher margins, we expect to continue to leverage our robust growth opportunities to drive superior results for our customers and shareholders.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Ecolab (ECL) click here.