ECL vs APD Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
Ecolab and Air Products are both large specialty chemical and industrial companies, but Ecolab focuses on water treatment, hygiene, and infection prevention services with deeply embedded customer relationships, while Air Products supplies industrial gases and is investing heavily in large-scale hydrogen infrastructure tied to the energy transition.
Ecolab offers exposure to essential water treatment and hygiene services with high customer switching costs and steady recurring revenue, while Air Products offers exposure to stable industrial gas supply contracts paired with a long-term bet on hydrogen infrastructure growth. Consider whether you prefer Ecolab's service-based recurring revenue or Air Products' hydrogen infrastructure growth potential.
APD holds the edge across 4 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. APD leads on both 1-year return (+30.27%) and forward P/E quality (20.19x vs 30.45x for ECL), a relatively favorable combination of momentum and valuation. On fundamentals, ECL is growing revenue faster (9.70%), while APD maintains the higher operating margin (25.54%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for APD (+18.42%) than for ECL (+13.32%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- Want exposure to essential water treatment and hygiene services with high customer switching costs
- Value deeply embedded technical service relationships that support recurring revenue
- Believe global end-market diversification reduces dependence on any single industry
- Prefer a more mature, steady growth profile over large-scale infrastructure growth bets
- Want exposure to stable, long-term industrial gas supply contracts
- Believe large-scale hydrogen infrastructure investment can pay off as clean energy demand grows
- Are comfortable with elevated project execution risk tied to major capital investment projects
- Seek a long-term bet on the energy transition alongside a stable industrial gas base business
| Metric | ECL | APD |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 53.1 | 53.0 |
| AI ranki | #366 | #365 |
| Latest closei | $308.38 | $316.03 |
| 1M returni | +12.67% | +13.86% |
| 3M returni | +10.36% | +7.88% |
| 6M returni | +20.65% | +5.93% |
| 1Y returni | +20.27% | +30.27% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | ECL | APD |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $11.98K (+19.8%) started 2025-11-03 | $13.2K (+32.0%) started 2025-11-03 |
| 5Y ago | $14.66K (+46.6%) started 2021-11-03 | $12.5K (+25.0%) started 2021-11-03 |
| 10Y ago | $33.51K (+235.1%) started 2016-11-03 | $36.63K (+266.3%) started 2016-11-03 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | ECL | APD |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $80.38B | $64.9B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 38.44 | 31.35 |
| Forward P/Ei | 30.45 | 20.19 |
| Price/Salesi | N/A | N/A |
| EV/Revenuei | 5.30 | 6.74 |
| Analyst targeti | $324.95 | $345.11 |
| Target upsidei | +13.32% | +18.42% |
| Metric | ECL | APD |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 9.70% | 4.60% |
| Earnings growthi | 3.30% | 9.70% |
| EPS growthi | +3.30% | +9.70% |
| FCF margini | +8.76% | -11.88% |
| Operating margini | 18.52% | 25.54% |
| Profit margini | 12.57% | -0.38% |
| ROIC proxyi | 21.96% | 0.02% |
| Return on equityi | 21.96% | 0.02% |
| Dividend yieldi | 1.02% | 2.47% |
| Payout ratioi | 39.73% | 75.66% |
| Dividend growth streaki | No increase yet | No increase yet |
| Betai | 0.89 | 0.75 |
| Debt/equityi | 138.02 | 110.09 |
| Current ratioi | 1.84 | 1.08 |
| Quick ratioi | 1.50 | 0.75 |
Over the past year, ECL and APD have moved weakly in the same direction (correlation of 0.21), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | ECL | APD |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | +19.78% | +32.03% |
| CAGRi | +19.85% | +32.14% | |
| Volatilityi | 21.32% | 26.25% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.75 | 1.03 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 1.13 | 1.64 | |
| Max drawdowni | 20.31% | 13.00% | |
| Current drawdowni | 0.00% | 0.00% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 8.29% | 4.23% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 10.05% | 5.40% | |
| Max daily dropi | 3.94% | 9.45% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 8.32% | 10.13% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | +40.74% | +14.15% |
| CAGRi | +7.08% | +2.68% | |
| Volatilityi | 24.03% | 26.42% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.22 | 0.06 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.31 | 0.09 | |
| Max drawdowni | 43.70% | 31.77% | |
| Current drawdowni | 0.00% | 5.95% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 14.42% | 14.29% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 18.85% | 15.93% | |
| Max daily dropi | 8.97% | 15.55% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 14.59% | 16.51% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +204.17% | +191.74% |
| CAGRi | +11.77% | +11.30% | |
| Volatilityi | 25.19% | 26.04% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.39 | 0.37 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.56 | 0.52 | |
| Max drawdowni | 43.70% | 31.77% | |
| Current drawdowni | 0.00% | 5.95% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 9.56% | 9.78% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 14.17% | 12.36% | |
| Max daily dropi | 11.74% | 15.55% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 24.62% | 19.77% |
| Category | ECL | APD |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Ecolab Inc. | Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. |
| Sector | Basic Materials | Basic Materials |
| Industry | Specialty Chemicals | Specialty Chemicals |
| Core business | A global provider of water treatment, hygiene, and infection prevention products and services, serving customers across food service, healthcare, hospitality, and industrial end markets with a combination of chemicals, equipment, and technical services. | A global industrial gas company that produces and supplies atmospheric and process gases to industrial customers, while investing heavily in large-scale hydrogen production and infrastructure projects tied to the energy transition. |
| Investor focus | Organic sales growth across its water and hygiene segments, pricing power relative to raw material input costs, and margin expansion progress from operational efficiency initiatives. | Industrial gas contract volume growth, progress and returns on large-scale hydrogen infrastructure investment projects, and capital allocation discipline given the scale of its growth capital spending. |
- Deeply embedded service and technical support relationships with customers create high switching costs and recurring revenue
- Essential water treatment and hygiene products serve mission-critical needs across food service, healthcare, and industrial customers
- Global scale and broad end-market diversification reduce dependence on any single industry or region
- Long-term, take-or-pay industrial gas supply contracts provide stable, predictable cash flow from existing operations
- Early and significant investment in hydrogen production infrastructure positions it to benefit from long-term clean energy demand
- Global industrial gas production and distribution network supports deep customer relationships across multiple industries
- Raw material and input cost volatility can pressure margins if pricing does not keep pace with inflation
- Growth is more mature given its already broad global market penetration across core end markets
- Faces competition from both large diversified chemical companies and smaller specialized water treatment providers
- Large-scale hydrogen infrastructure projects require substantial capital investment with returns dependent on future demand materializing as expected
- Project execution risk is elevated given the scale and complexity of its hydrogen and clean energy infrastructure buildout
- Industrial gas demand is tied to broader industrial production activity, which can soften during economic downturns
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