Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor $ZWS

Key Points

• Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Zurn Elkay Water Solutions, now owning approximately 8.09% of the company, valued at around $448.7 million.
• Zurn Elkay reported a 7.9% year-over-year revenue increase for the last quarter, with earnings per share surpassing estimates at $0.42.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.09 per share, reflecting an annualized yield of 0.8% and a payout ratio of 35.64%.

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor (NYSE:ZWS - Free Report) by 0.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 13,605,639 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 42,277 shares during the quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC owned 8.09% of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor worth $448,714,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in ZWS. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor by 74.1% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,715,496 shares of the company's stock worth $56,577,000 after buying an additional 729,920 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor in the first quarter worth $21,273,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,860,934 shares of the company's stock worth $523,094,000 after buying an additional 371,635 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,006,596 shares of the company's stock worth $149,444,000 after buying an additional 245,258 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lifted its position in shares of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor by 45.2% during the first quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 533,849 shares of the company's stock worth $17,606,000 after purchasing an additional 166,080 shares during the last quarter. 83.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on ZWS shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor from $43.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Mizuho set a $36.00 price target on Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $38.00.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ZWS traded down $0.49 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $45.40. 217,204 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 989,387. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor has a 1 year low of $27.74 and a 1 year high of $46.60. The company has a market cap of $7.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.96, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a current ratio of 2.71. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.40.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor (NYSE:ZWS - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.06. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor had a return on equity of 15.23% and a net margin of 10.78%.The firm had revenue of $444.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $424.55 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. The business's revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor will post 1.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th will be paid a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.64%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor news, Director Timothy J. Jahnke sold 9,857 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.06, for a total value of $444,156.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 328,964 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,823,117.84. This trade represents a 2.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sudhanshu Chhabra sold 108,930 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.61, for a total value of $4,750,437.30. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 94,330 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,113,731.30. This represents a 53.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 148,930 shares of company stock valued at $6,501,529 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 2.60% of the company's stock.

About Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation engages in design, procurement, manufacture, and marketing of water management solutions in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It offers water safety and control products, such as backflow preventers, fire system valves, pressure reducing valves, thermostatic mixing valves, PEX pipings, fittings, and installation tools under the Zurn and Wilkins brand names.