Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC Buys 265,857 Shares of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Co. (NYSE:ZWS)

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Co. (NYSE:ZWS) by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 13,138,996 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 265,857 shares during the quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC owned about 7.69% of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions worth $386,286,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ZWS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,738,204 shares of the company’s stock worth $404,041,000 after purchasing an additional 131,683 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its stake in Zurn Elkay Water Solutions by 2,110.7% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 2,311,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,968,000 after acquiring an additional 2,206,508 shares during the period. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions by 8.4% in the first quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 2,304,715 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,139,000 after acquiring an additional 178,861 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions by 24.1% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,751,205 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,485,000 after acquiring an additional 339,892 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions by 37.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,695,510 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,846,000 after purchasing an additional 465,701 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.33% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Timothy J. Jahnke sold 10,035 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total value of $351,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 374,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,124,370. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Zurn Elkay Water Solutions news, Director Timothy J. Jahnke sold 10,035 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total transaction of $351,225.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 374,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,124,370. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Timothy J. Jahnke sold 4,086 shares of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.01, for a total transaction of $134,878.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 389,399 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,854,060.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 190,812 shares of company stock valued at $5,865,786 in the last 90 days. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ZWS. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Zurn Elkay Water Solutions from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $37.00 price objective on shares of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.17.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Price Performance

NYSE ZWS opened at $34.82 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $31.65 and its 200-day moving average is $31.48. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market capitalization of $6.01 billion, a PE ratio of 49.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.14. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Co. has a 12-month low of $25.09 and a 12-month high of $35.18.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions (NYSE:ZWS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $412.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $409.14 million. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions had a net margin of 8.80% and a return on equity of 12.82%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.24 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Co. will post 1.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 20th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is 45.07%.

About Zurn Elkay Water Solutions

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.