Financial Comparison: Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) vs. Ingevity (NYSE:NGVT)

Ingevity (NYSE:NGVT) and Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and earnings.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Ingevity and Ecolab”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ingevity	$1.41 billion	1.50	-$430.30 million	($1.82)	-32.21
Ecolab	$15.74 billion	4.74	$2.11 billion	$6.96	37.85

Ecolab has higher revenue and earnings than Ingevity. Ingevity is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ecolab, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Ingevity and Ecolab, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ingevity	1	2	1	0	2.00
Ecolab	0	5	13	3	2.90

Ingevity currently has a consensus target price of $65.00, suggesting a potential upside of 10.89%. Ecolab has a consensus target price of $294.57, suggesting a potential upside of 11.81%. Given Ecolab’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ecolab is more favorable than Ingevity.

Risk and Volatility

Ingevity has a beta of 1.4, indicating that its stock price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ecolab has a beta of 0.98, indicating that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

91.6% of Ingevity shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.9% of Ecolab shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of Ingevity shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Ecolab shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Ingevity and Ecolab’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ingevity	-5.14%	103.69%	9.17%
Ecolab	12.49%	22.55%	8.98%

Summary

Ecolab beats Ingevity on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ingevity

Ingevity Corporation manufactures and sells activated carbon products, derivative specialty chemicals, and engineered polymers in North America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South America. It operates through three segments: Performance Materials, Performance Chemicals, and Advanced Polymer Technologies. The Performance Materials segment engineers, manufactures, and sells hardwood-based and chemically activated carbon products for use in gasoline vapor emission control systems in cars, motorcycles, trucks, and boats. This segment also produces other activated carbon products for food, water, beverage, and chemical purification applications. The Performance Chemicals segment consists of road technologies and industrial specialties. This segment's products are used in pavement construction, pavement preservation, pavement reconstruction and recycling, road markings, agrochemical dispersants, paper chemicals, and other industrial uses. The Advanced Polymer Technologies segment produces caprolactone and caprolactone-based specialty polymers for use in coatings, resins, elastomers, adhesives, bioplastics, and medical devices. It serves automotive parts and components manufacturers through sales representatives and distributors. The company was formerly known as WestRock Company, Specialty Chemicals Business and changed its name to Ingevity Corporation in September 2015. Ingevity Corporation was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in North Charleston, South Carolina.

About Ecolab

Ecolab Inc. provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Global Industrial; Global Institutional & Specialty; and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences. The Global Industrial segment offers water treatment and process applications, and cleaning and sanitizing solutions to manufacturing, food and beverage processing, transportation, chemical, metals and mining, power generation, pulp and paper, commercial laundry, petroleum, refining, and petrochemical industries. Its Global Institutional & Specialty segment provides specialized cleaning and sanitizing products to the foodservice, hospitality, lodging, government and education, and retail industries. The Global Healthcare & Life Sciences segment offers specialized cleaning and sanitizing products to the healthcare, personal care, and pharmaceutical industries, such as infection prevention and surgical solutions, and end-to-end cleaning and contamination control solutions under the Ecolab, Microtek, and Anios brand names. In addition, the company provides pest elimination services to detect, eliminate, and prevent pests, such as rodents and insects in restaurants, food and beverage processors, hotels, grocery operations, and other commercial segments including education, life sciences, and healthcare customers. Further, it offers colloidal silica for binding and polishing applications in semiconductor, catalyst, and aerospace component manufacturing, as well as chemical industries; and products and services that manage wash process through custom designed programs, premium products, dispensing equipment, water and energy management, and reduction, as well as real time data management. It sells its products through field sales and corporate account personnel, distributors, and dealers. Ecolab Inc. was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota.