Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Co. (NYSE:ZWS) Plans $0.09 Quarterly Dividend

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Co. (NYSE:ZWS) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.09 per share on Friday, March 7th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions has raised its dividend by an average of 3.2% per year over the last three years. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions has a payout ratio of 24.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Zurn Elkay Water Solutions to earn $1.35 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 26.7%.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Price Performance

Shares of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions stock opened at $39.49 on Friday. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions has a one year low of $28.25 and a one year high of $41.15. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $38.57 and its 200 day moving average is $35.78. The stock has a market cap of $6.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.71 and a current ratio of 2.70.

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions (NYSE:ZWS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.02. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions had a return on equity of 13.30% and a net margin of 8.87%. The company had revenue of $410.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $406.15 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.29 EPS. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Zurn Elkay Water Solutions will post 1.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on ZWS. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Zurn Elkay Water Solutions from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Zurn Elkay Water Solutions from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Mizuho raised their price target on Zurn Elkay Water Solutions from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Zurn Elkay Water Solutions from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $38.67.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Todd A. Adams sold 120,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.83, for a total transaction of $4,779,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,242,867 shares in the company, valued at $89,333,392.61. This trade represents a 5.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO David J. Pauli sold 4,070 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.15, for a total value of $159,340.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 47,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,862,443.80. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 127,202 shares of company stock worth $5,061,558 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

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.