ZWS
Zurn Elkay Water SolutionsDDocument history
Earnings documents stored for ZWS.
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-15Zurn Elkay Water Solutions (ZWS) Stock Looks Overvalued Relative To Earnings
Simply Wall St.
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions (ZWS) Stock Looks Overvalued Relative To Earnings
Find winning stocks in any market cycle. Join 7 million investors using Simply Wall St's investing ideas for FREE. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions has delivered a strong 85.8% return over the past five years, yet its valuation signals are split, with an intrinsic value estimate from a Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model suggesting upside while market multiples point to a richer price tag. The 85.8% five year return highlights that long term shareholders have already seen substantial gains, which can limit the margin of safety at today’s price. Expectations around Zurn Elkay Water Solutions’ ability to convert revenue into steady cash flows can support the intrinsic value case, while any pressure on margins or higher capital spending needs may weigh on how much investors are willing to pay. With a low value score, Zurn Elkay Water Solutions screens as expensive on most of the broader valuation checks, even though the DCF model points to the stock trading about 10.9% below its intrinsic value. The issue now is whether the recent share price around US$50.97 still leaves enough upside relative to intrinsic value to compensate for the risks that the broader valuation checks are flagging. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions delivered 15.1% returns over the last year. See how this stacks up to the rest of the Building industry. The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model for Zurn Elkay Water Solutions uses projected future free cash flows to estimate what the stock could be worth today. On the latest twelve month numbers, the company generated around $376.7 million of free cash flow, and the model assumes these cash flows keep growing rather than shrinking over the coming years. On this basis, the DCF points to an estimated intrinsic value of about $57 per share. That sits above the recent share price around $50.97, which implies the stock trades at roughly a 10.9% discount to this cash flow based estimate. On balance, the DCF work suggests Zurn Elkay Water Solutions stock appears undervalued relative to its projected cash generation. Our Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis suggests Zurn Elkay Water Solutions is undervalued by 10.9%. Track this in your watchlist or portfolio, or discover 50 more high quality undervalued stocks. Head to the Valuation section of our Company Report for more details on how we arrive at this Fair Value for Zurn Elkay Water Solutions. P/E is a useful way to loo…Read full documentShow less
Find winning stocks in any market cycle. Join 7 million investors using Simply Wall St's investing ideas for FREE. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions has delivered a strong 85.8% return over the past five years, yet its valuation signals are split, with an intrinsic value estimate from a Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model suggesting upside while market multiples point to a richer price tag. The 85.8% five year return highlights that long term shareholders have already seen substantial gains, which can limit the margin of safety at today’s price. Expectations around Zurn Elkay Water Solutions’ ability to convert revenue into steady cash flows can support the intrinsic value case, while any pressure on margins or higher capital spending needs may weigh on how much investors are willing to pay. With a low value score, Zurn Elkay Water Solutions screens as expensive on most of the broader valuation checks, even though the DCF model points to the stock trading about 10.9% below its intrinsic value. The issue now is whether the recent share price around US$50.97 still leaves enough upside relative to intrinsic value to compensate for the risks that the broader valuation checks are flagging. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions delivered 15.1% returns over the last year. See how this stacks up to the rest of the Building industry. The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model for Zurn Elkay Water Solutions uses projected future free cash flows to estimate what the stock could be worth today. On the latest twelve month numbers, the company generated around $376.7 million of free cash flow, and the model assumes these cash flows keep growing rather than shrinking over the coming years. On this basis, the DCF points to an estimated intrinsic value of about $57 per share. That sits above the recent share price around $50.97, which implies the stock trades at roughly a 10.9% discount to this cash flow based estimate. On balance, the DCF work suggests Zurn Elkay Water Solutions stock appears undervalued relative to its projected cash generation. Our Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis suggests Zurn Elkay Water Solutions is undervalued by 10.9%. Track this in your watchlist or portfolio, or discover 50 more high quality undervalued stocks. Head to the Valuation section of our Company Report for more details on how we arrive at this Fair Value for Zurn Elkay Water Solutions. P/E is a useful way to look at Zurn Elkay Water Solutions because earnings remain a key reference point for how the market values the business today. On this measure, the stock trades on about 31.0x earnings, which sits above both the wider building industry average of around 22.9x and the peer group average near 26.9x. The valuation framework that adjusts for Zurn Elkay Water Solutions’ scale, sector, and risk profile points to a P/E closer to 21.9x. That is a clear gap to the current 31.0x multiple and indicates that investors are paying a premium relative to what the model would imply. Even allowing for company specific factors that may justify some uplift, the stock appears to be pricing in a substantial amount of positive expectations on earnings. On the P/E yardstick, Zurn Elkay Water Solutions stock appears more expensive than both its tailored P/E indication and broader industry benchmarks. See what the numbers say about this price — find out in our valuation breakdown. Simply Wall St Narratives for Zurn Elkay Water Solutions build on this valuation puzzle by setting out the specific paths for growth, margins and earnings that would need to play out for the stock to be worth materially more or less than today’s price, and they sit on the company’s Community page. Where a ratio or model shows a single number, these narratives describe the future that number relies on so you can monitor whether those conditions remain in place. You can add your own narrative on Zurn Elkay Water Solutions' valuation and a view on where its growth, margins, and execution go from here. Share a number-driven case and see how it holds up as new information is released. Do you think there's more to the story for Zurn Elkay Water Solutions? Head over to our Community to see what others are saying! Zurn Elkay Water Solutions sits in a grey zone where its Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) work points to some intrinsic value upside, while the P/E and broader checks lean toward the stock being overvalued. The split comes from the DCF leaning on future cash flow delivery and capital needs, while the market multiple reflects the strong expectations already built into the current earnings and sentiment. For investors, the key question is whether Zurn Elkay Water Solutions can sustain the cash generation that underpins the intrinsic value estimate without putting pressure on margins or capital spending. That assumption is what separates the opportunity from the risk of paying up. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include ZWS. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email [email protected]
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-15Q2 Earnings Highs And Lows: Zurn Elkay (NYSE:ZWS) Vs The Rest Of The HVAC and Water Systems Stocks
StockStory
Q2 Earnings Highs And Lows: Zurn Elkay (NYSE:ZWS) Vs The Rest Of The HVAC and Water Systems Stocks
The end of an earnings season can be a great time to discover new stocks and assess how companies are handling the current business environment. Let’s take a look at how Zurn Elkay (NYSE:ZWS) and the rest of the hvac and water systems stocks fared in Q2. Many HVAC and water systems companies sell essential, non-discretionary infrastructure for buildings. Since the useful lives of these water heaters and vents are fairly standard, these companies have a portion of predictable replacement revenue. In the last decade, trends in energy efficiency and clean water are driving innovation that is leading to incremental demand. On the other hand, new installations for these companies are at the whim of residential and commercial construction volumes, which tend to be cyclical and can be impacted heavily by economic factors such as interest rates. The 9 hvac and water systems stocks we track reported a very strong Q2. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 4.7%. In light of this news, share prices of the companies have held steady. On average, they are relatively unchanged since the latest earnings results. Claiming to have saved more than 30 billion gallons of water, Zurn Elkay (NYSE:ZWS) provides water management solutions to various industries. Zurn Elkay reported revenues of $491 million, up 10.5% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 1.6%. Overall, it was a strong quarter for the company with a decent beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates. Todd A. Adams, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We delivered a solid second quarter, first half and are raising our outlook for the full year. Core sales(1) grew 10% and adjusted EBITDA margins(1) of 27.7% expanded by 120 basis points over the prior year second quarter. We continue to leverage the Zurn Elkay Business System to drive above market growth in targeted areas as well as a higher baseline of incremental margins through our relentless deployment of 80/20, our supply chain initiatives and the continuous improvement our associates drive every day. Our robust and increasing levels of free cash flow(1) provide us with the flexibility to continue to be both disciplined and strategic, investing in stock repurchases, a growing dividend and acquisitions while maintaining a low leverage profile. In the quarter we repurchased $50 millio…Read full documentShow less
The end of an earnings season can be a great time to discover new stocks and assess how companies are handling the current business environment. Let’s take a look at how Zurn Elkay (NYSE:ZWS) and the rest of the hvac and water systems stocks fared in Q2. Many HVAC and water systems companies sell essential, non-discretionary infrastructure for buildings. Since the useful lives of these water heaters and vents are fairly standard, these companies have a portion of predictable replacement revenue. In the last decade, trends in energy efficiency and clean water are driving innovation that is leading to incremental demand. On the other hand, new installations for these companies are at the whim of residential and commercial construction volumes, which tend to be cyclical and can be impacted heavily by economic factors such as interest rates. The 9 hvac and water systems stocks we track reported a very strong Q2. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 4.7%. In light of this news, share prices of the companies have held steady. On average, they are relatively unchanged since the latest earnings results. Claiming to have saved more than 30 billion gallons of water, Zurn Elkay (NYSE:ZWS) provides water management solutions to various industries. Zurn Elkay reported revenues of $491 million, up 10.5% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 1.6%. Overall, it was a strong quarter for the company with a decent beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates. Todd A. Adams, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We delivered a solid second quarter, first half and are raising our outlook for the full year. Core sales(1) grew 10% and adjusted EBITDA margins(1) of 27.7% expanded by 120 basis points over the prior year second quarter. We continue to leverage the Zurn Elkay Business System to drive above market growth in targeted areas as well as a higher baseline of incremental margins through our relentless deployment of 80/20, our supply chain initiatives and the continuous improvement our associates drive every day. Our robust and increasing levels of free cash flow(1) provide us with the flexibility to continue to be both disciplined and strategic, investing in stock repurchases, a growing dividend and acquisitions while maintaining a low leverage profile. In the quarter we repurchased $50 million dollars of our own shares, bringing the total to $100 million over the first half of 2026 while also paying $37 million in dividends.” Interestingly, the stock is up 3.3% since reporting and currently trades at $50.95. We think Zurn Elkay is a good business, but is it a buy today? Read our full report here, it’s free. Backed by two million square feet of lab testing space, AAON (NASDAQ:AAON) makes heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment for different types of buildings. AAON reported revenues of $627 million, up 101% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 24.6%. The business had an incredible quarter with a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates and an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates. AAON scored the biggest analyst estimate beat and fastest revenue growth in the group. Although it had a fine quarter compared to its peers, the market seems unhappy with the results as the stock is down 7.7% since reporting. It currently trades at $87.50. Is now the time to buy AAON? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free. Based in Texas and founded over a century ago, Lennox (NYSE:LII) is a climate control solutions company offering heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) goods. Lennox reported revenues of $1.55 billion, up 3% year on year, falling short of analysts’ expectations by 1%. It was a mixed quarter as it posted a solid beat of analysts’ organic revenue estimates but full-year EPS guidance missing analysts’ expectations significantly. Lennox delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates of the whole group. As expected, the stock is down 20.8% since the results and currently trades at $430.82. Read our full analysis of Lennox’s results here. Originally started as a farm water drainage company, Advanced Drainage Systems (NYSE:WMS) provides clean water management solutions to communities across America. Advanced Drainage reported revenues of $1.00 billion, up 20.6% year on year. This result topped analysts’ expectations by 2%. It was a very strong quarter as it also logged a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates. Advanced Drainage had the weakest full-year guidance update among its peers. The stock is down 5.5% since reporting and currently trades at $141.34. Read our full, actionable report on Advanced Drainage here, it’s free. Founded by the inventor of air conditioning, Carrier Global (NYSE:CARR) manufactures heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration products. Carrier Global reported revenues of $6.35 billion, up 3.9% year on year. This print surpassed analysts’ expectations by 5.6%. Overall, it was a stunning quarter as it also recorded a solid beat of analysts’ organic revenue estimates and full-year EPS guidance exceeding analysts’ expectations. Carrier Global achieved the highest full-year guidance raise in the group. The stock is down 8.3% since reporting and currently trades at $63.61. Read our full, actionable report on Carrier Global here, it’s free. Over the past year, investors have been forced to repeatedly answer the same question: what is the market’s biggest risk? The answer has changed several times, and each shift has reshaped market leadership. Late in 2025 and early 2026, artificial intelligence became the market’s primary uncertainty. Investors questioned whether AI would erode software pricing power and weaken competitive moats as AI made it easier to replicate once-differentiated products. By the spring, technology took a back seat to geopolitics. The U.S. conflict with Iran briefly became the market’s dominant narrative, raising concerns about oil prices, inflation, and global growth. But as energy markets remained orderly and fears of a prolonged supply disruption faded, investors quickly turned their focus back to fundamentals. Want to invest in winners with rock-solid fundamentals? Check out our Top 5 Quality Compounder Stocks and add them to your watchlist. These companies are poised for growth regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate.
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-01Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor Q2 Earnings Call Highlights
MarketBeat
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor Q2 Earnings Call Highlights
Interested in Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor? Here are five stocks we like better. Strong second-quarter performance: Organic sales rose 10% to $491 million, while adjusted EBITDA increased 15% to $136 million. The adjusted EBITDA margin reached a record 27.7%, supported by pricing, volume leverage, productivity gains and favorable product mix. Intellihot expands the company’s addressable market: Zurn Elkay completed its $109 million acquisition of commercial tankless water-heater maker Intellihot, adding access to a $1.1 billion market. Management sees a path for Intellihot to reach $100 million in sales and a 30% EBITDA margin within five to six years. Full-year outlook raised: The company now expects 2026 adjusted EBITDA of $503 million to $513 million and free cash flow of at least $350 million, excluding IEPA and reciprocal tariff refunds. Zurn Elkay also repurchased $50 million of shares during the quarter, bringing year-to-date repurchases to $100 million. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor (NYSE:ZWS) reported second-quarter organic sales growth of 10% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 15%, supported by demand in its Water Safety and Control and Drinking Water product lines, higher pricing, and margin expansion. Second-quarter sales totaled $491 million, while adjusted EBITDA reached $136 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 120 basis points from a year earlier to a record 27.7%, exceeding the company’s prior guidance range of 27% to 27.5%. → Microsoft Just Flipped the AI Spending Narrative Overnight Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Todd Adams said the company generated $112 million in free cash flow during the quarter and repurchased $50 million of shares at roughly $48 per share. Year-to-date share repurchases totaled $100 million. Chief Financial Officer Dan Klun said institutional end markets continued to show positive momentum, partly offset by residential weakness and pockets of softness in commercial markets. Price contributed approximately 5% to second-quarter growth, consistent with the first quarter. → 2 Unique Space ETFs That Could Upend the Industry Water Safety and Control and Drinking Water grew faster than the company average during the quarter, according to Klun. During the question-and-answer session, Adams said those two platforms were growing somewhat faster than Flow Systems, while Hygienic and Environmental remained positive but g…Read full documentShow less
Interested in Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor? Here are five stocks we like better. Strong second-quarter performance: Organic sales rose 10% to $491 million, while adjusted EBITDA increased 15% to $136 million. The adjusted EBITDA margin reached a record 27.7%, supported by pricing, volume leverage, productivity gains and favorable product mix. Intellihot expands the company’s addressable market: Zurn Elkay completed its $109 million acquisition of commercial tankless water-heater maker Intellihot, adding access to a $1.1 billion market. Management sees a path for Intellihot to reach $100 million in sales and a 30% EBITDA margin within five to six years. Full-year outlook raised: The company now expects 2026 adjusted EBITDA of $503 million to $513 million and free cash flow of at least $350 million, excluding IEPA and reciprocal tariff refunds. Zurn Elkay also repurchased $50 million of shares during the quarter, bringing year-to-date repurchases to $100 million. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor (NYSE:ZWS) reported second-quarter organic sales growth of 10% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 15%, supported by demand in its Water Safety and Control and Drinking Water product lines, higher pricing, and margin expansion. Second-quarter sales totaled $491 million, while adjusted EBITDA reached $136 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 120 basis points from a year earlier to a record 27.7%, exceeding the company’s prior guidance range of 27% to 27.5%. → Microsoft Just Flipped the AI Spending Narrative Overnight Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Todd Adams said the company generated $112 million in free cash flow during the quarter and repurchased $50 million of shares at roughly $48 per share. Year-to-date share repurchases totaled $100 million. Chief Financial Officer Dan Klun said institutional end markets continued to show positive momentum, partly offset by residential weakness and pockets of softness in commercial markets. Price contributed approximately 5% to second-quarter growth, consistent with the first quarter. → 2 Unique Space ETFs That Could Upend the Industry Water Safety and Control and Drinking Water grew faster than the company average during the quarter, according to Klun. During the question-and-answer session, Adams said those two platforms were growing somewhat faster than Flow Systems, while Hygienic and Environmental remained positive but grew at a slower rate. The company attributed margin improvement to operating leverage on higher volume, productivity efforts under its Zurn Elkay Business System, and favorable mix as higher-margin products led growth. First-half sales and EBITDA increased $91 million and $36 million, respectively, from the prior year. The company’s first-half adjusted EBITDA margin was 27.3%, up about 140 basis points year over year. → MarketBeat Week in Review – 07/27- 07/31 Klun also noted that the company received $48 million in cash related to IEPA and reciprocal tariff refunds, including $2 million of accrued interest. The refund was recorded in cost of goods sold and affected reported GAAP earnings and earnings per share, but was excluded from adjusted earnings and free cash flow. As of June 30, Zurn Elkay had about $60 million of IEPA and reciprocal tariffs that remained uncollected and unrecognized in its financial statements. Net debt leverage ended the quarter at 0.3 times, the lowest level in the company’s history as a public company, Klun said. Zurn Elkay recently completed its acquisition of Intellihot, a producer of commercial tankless condensing water heaters. Adams said the company paid $109 million for the business, or $100 million net of a tax asset. Intellihot is expected to generate about $37 million of sales in 2026, with gross margins of about 50% and EBITDA margins in the low teens. Management said the transaction adds a $1.1 billion commercial water-heating market to its addressable market, including a tankless segment of more than $200 million. President Jeff Schoon said tankless water heating is growing faster than the broader commercial water-heating category, driven by efficiency regulations, building-owner concerns around Legionella risk, smaller mechanical-room requirements, and operating-cost savings. Adams said Zurn Elkay sees a path for Intellihot to become a $100 million business with a 30% EBITDA margin within five to six years, and expects a double-digit return on invested capital in three years. The company plans to use its specification, contractor, wholesaler and end-user relationships to expand Intellihot’s reach, while also pursuing supply-chain and operational improvements. Management said Intellihot was not acquired for a near-term earnings contribution. For the final five months of 2026, Klun estimated the acquisition would contribute about $18 million in net sales. Chief Operating Officer Dave Pauli said adjusted EBITDA margins have improved 660 basis points on a trailing 12-month basis from the first quarter of 2023 through the second quarter of 2026. On a point-to-point basis, margins rose 820 basis points over 14 quarters, from 19.5% in the first quarter of 2023 to 27.7% in the latest quarter. Pauli cited continuous-improvement initiatives, growth in higher-margin product lines, portfolio pruning under the company’s 80/20 strategy, manufacturing footprint consolidation, and sourcing changes as contributors. He said the company’s efforts to reduce sourcing from China have provided both geopolitical risk mitigation and a lower landed-cost profile. In Drinking Water, the company said its filtration business has grown from less than $25 million of sales before the Elkay merger to more than $60 million expected this year. Zurn Elkay expects more than 60% of Drinking Water units sold in 2026 to be filtered, compared with 50% in 2023, and is targeting 70% in 2027. The company highlighted its Elkay Pro Filtration platform, which adds easier filter replacement, options for two filters, connectivity features and proprietary filter heads intended to prevent use of counterfeit filters. Following its first-half performance, Zurn Elkay raised its full-year outlook for sales, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. The company expects third-quarter core sales growth of 6% to 7% and adjusted EBITDA margin of about 28%. Fourth-quarter core sales growth is expected to be in the mid-single digits. For 2026, including Intellihot, the company expects adjusted EBITDA of $503 million to $513 million and free cash flow of at least $350 million, excluding past and future IEPA reciprocal tariff refunds. Adams said the company’s full-year assumptions include three to four percentage points of pricing, about one point of market growth, and additional growth from share gains and exposure to higher-growth categories. He said the outlook incorporates the transition from expired Section 122 tariffs to newly announced Section 301 tariffs. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corp, trading on the NYSE under the ticker ZWS, is a global provider of water delivery and plumbing products. The company was established in October 2022 through a spin-off from Rexnord Corp, creating a standalone business focused on designing, manufacturing and marketing water system components for residential, commercial and industrial customers. Through its Zurn segment, the company offers solutions for water delivery, drainage and waste evacuation. Product lines include valves, hydrants, backflow prevention devices, piping systems, fittings and commercial waste stations. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-07-29Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corp (ZWS) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Highlights: Record Margin Expansion ...
GuruFocus.com
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corp (ZWS) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Highlights: Record Margin Expansion ...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Release Date: July 29, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corp (NYSE:ZWS) reported a 10% organic sales growth in Q2 2026, with EBITDA increasing by 15% and margin expanding by 120 basis points to a record 27.7%. The company generated $112 million in free cash flow and repurchased $50 million of its shares, demonstrating strong financial health and shareholder value return. The acquisition of Intellihot is expected to significantly enhance ZWS's market position, with a clear path to double-digit return on invested capital in three years. ZWS raised its full-year outlook for sales, EBITDA, and free cash flow, indicating confidence in continued strong performance. The company's strategic focus on high-margin products and continuous improvement initiatives has led to substantial margin expansion and operational efficiency gains. There is ongoing work required for the integration of Intellihot, which may present challenges and require significant resources. The residential and pockets of commercial markets showed some softness, partially offsetting the positive momentum in institutional markets. The company's growth strategy involves significant investment in new products and adjacencies, which may not yield immediate returns. ZWS's reliance on non-GAAP measures for reporting may obscure the full financial picture for some investors. The transition from Section 122 tariffs to Section 301 tariffs introduces some uncertainty in cost structures and pricing strategies. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 8 Warning Signs with CAR. Is ZWS fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Q: Can you rank order the growth of your higher margin platforms, such as water safety and control, drinking water, and flow systems? A: Todd Adams, CEO: Drinking water and safety and control are slightly above flow systems in terms of growth. Hygienic and environmental is still positive, especially on a unit volume basis, but it's our smallest category. Q: Could you provide more details on the Intellihot acquisition and its expected impact in the short term? A: Todd Adams, CEO: Intellihot is a strategic acquisition due to its best-in-class technology. We expect it to become a $100 million business with 30% margins in 5-6 years. The acquisi…Read full documentShow less
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Release Date: July 29, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corp (NYSE:ZWS) reported a 10% organic sales growth in Q2 2026, with EBITDA increasing by 15% and margin expanding by 120 basis points to a record 27.7%. The company generated $112 million in free cash flow and repurchased $50 million of its shares, demonstrating strong financial health and shareholder value return. The acquisition of Intellihot is expected to significantly enhance ZWS's market position, with a clear path to double-digit return on invested capital in three years. ZWS raised its full-year outlook for sales, EBITDA, and free cash flow, indicating confidence in continued strong performance. The company's strategic focus on high-margin products and continuous improvement initiatives has led to substantial margin expansion and operational efficiency gains. There is ongoing work required for the integration of Intellihot, which may present challenges and require significant resources. The residential and pockets of commercial markets showed some softness, partially offsetting the positive momentum in institutional markets. The company's growth strategy involves significant investment in new products and adjacencies, which may not yield immediate returns. ZWS's reliance on non-GAAP measures for reporting may obscure the full financial picture for some investors. The transition from Section 122 tariffs to Section 301 tariffs introduces some uncertainty in cost structures and pricing strategies. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 8 Warning Signs with CAR. Is ZWS fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Q: Can you rank order the growth of your higher margin platforms, such as water safety and control, drinking water, and flow systems? A: Todd Adams, CEO: Drinking water and safety and control are slightly above flow systems in terms of growth. Hygienic and environmental is still positive, especially on a unit volume basis, but it's our smallest category. Q: Could you provide more details on the Intellihot acquisition and its expected impact in the short term? A: Todd Adams, CEO: Intellihot is a strategic acquisition due to its best-in-class technology. We expect it to become a $100 million business with 30% margins in 5-6 years. The acquisition was not for immediate gains but for long-term growth and integration with our existing offerings. Q: How is pricing trending for the year, and have there been any mid-year adjustments? A: Todd Adams, CEO: Pricing is trending towards the high end of the 3-4% range for the year. We haven't needed additional price increases in 2026, and we expect a normal pricing year moving forward. Q: Can you elaborate on the margin expansion strategy for Intellihot? A: Dan Klun, CFO: The margin expansion will come from leveraging our scale, purchasing power, and optimizing the cost structure. It's a combination of improving efficiencies and leveraging our existing capabilities. Q: What are the primary focus areas for Zurn Elkay's strategic plan in 2027? A: Todd Adams, CEO: We will focus on adjacencies and categories related to our current operations, aiming to generate $20-$30 million in revenue over three years by leveraging our channels and relationships. Q: How do you identify products or businesses to exit under the 80/20 strategy? A: Todd Adams, CEO: We conduct a detailed product lifecycle management review to assess competitive dynamics and investment needs. This helps us decide which areas to exit and where to reinvest for faster growth. Q: How important is expanding recurring revenue and MRO exposure in your growth strategy? A: Dave Foley, COO: Growing the installed base of filtered units is crucial, as it leads to a larger filter business. Our focus on retrofit and replacement provides a hedge against new construction activity. Q: What is the framework for organic growth in adjacencies? A: Todd Adams, CEO: We target $20-$30 million in revenue over three years from new categories. The growth may not be linear, but we focus on developing competitive advantages and leveraging our existing capabilities. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.
TranscriptFY2026 Q22026-07-29FY2026 Q2 earnings call transcript
Earnings source - 93 paragraphs
FY2026 Q2 earnings call transcript
Good morning and welcome to the Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Results Conference Call with Todd Adams, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dan Klun, Chief Financial Officer, Dave Pauli, Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Schoon, President, and Bobbi Belstner, Vice President and Corporate Controller for Zurn Elkay Water Solutions. A replay of this conference call will be available as a webcast on the company's investor relations website. At this time, for opening remarks and introduction, I'll turn the call over to Bobbi Belstner.
Good morning, everyone? Thanks for joining the call today. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this call contains certain forward-looking statements which are subject to the safe harbor language outlined in our press release issued yesterday afternoon and in our filings with the SEC. In addition, some comparisons will refer to non-GAAP measures. Our earnings release and SEC filings contain additional information about these non-GAAP measures, why we use them, and why we believe they are helpful to investors and contain reconciliations to the corresponding GAAP information. Consistent with prior quarters, we will speak to certain non-GAAP metrics as we feel they provide a better understanding of our operating results. These measures are not a substitute for GAAP. We encourage you to review the GAAP information in our earnings release and in our SEC filings.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Todd Adams, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions.
Thanks, Bobbi. Good morning. I'm on page three in the slide deck. This morning I'll start with some comments on the quarter and trends in our business. Our Chief Financial Officer, Dan Klun, will cover the Q2 results, and then just a little bit later, our outlook. You'll hear from our president, Jeff Schoon, on the Intellihot acquisition, followed by our Chief Operating Officer, Dave Pauli, who will provide an update on Drinking Water as well as some color on the operations and what's driving our record operating results. After that, we'll open it up to your questions. Sales grew 10% organically in the second quarter while EBITDA grew 15% as margin expanded by 120 basis points to a record 27.7%.
In the quarter, we generated $112 million of free cash flow and repurchased $50 million of Zurn Elkay at roughly $48 a share, bringing our year-to-date investment and repurchases to $100 million. With respect to the Intellihot acquisition, this is a category and a company we've been interested in for a really long time. It's a terrific adjacency for us in a category that we feel we can really grow over the coming years as we leverage all the capabilities we bring to bear. The most important being the approach we're going to take to really scale this business by leveraging the Zurn Elkay Business System. The great thing about Intellihot is that its products are best in class from a performance perspective, but there is work to do around the integration. The primary integration work centers around the things that we're really good at.
Scaling a specified product into our core verticals through the same path we take to market with respect to specification, relationships at the end user, engineer, contractor, and at the wholesale level all nationally. Followed by supply chain excellence, finally, the power of bringing this additional content to market alongside our leading market share positions within our core verticals in institutional and commercial non-residential construction. In terms of the deal, we paid $109 million in the transaction, $100 million net of a tax asset for a business that will generate about $37 million of sales this year with 50% gross margins and low teens EBITDA margins. We see a very clear path for a double-digit return on invested capital in three years. In our view, we believe that Intellihot can be a $100 million business with a 30% EBITDA margin in the next five years.
To be conservative, maybe it's six. The point is that to get on that kind of trajectory, we're going to invest in it, add products around it, work the efficiency and regulatory angles, and grow the installed base. A great example of where we've done that with great success is what we've been able to do with the Elkay and filtration. Dave will take you through an update on that as part of his remarks in just a couple of minutes. The final point for me this morning is on our full-year outlook. We've had a solid first half and are raising our outlook for the year for sales, EBITDA, and free cash flow. From an underlying market perspective, there's always a few small puts and takes to our underlying assumptions, but generally consistent from what we've assumed for the year.
For the year, we've got three to four points of price, a point of market growth, the rest coming from share gains or simply our exposure to higher secular growth categories, some of which the guys will point out later in the call. The highlight to point out in our outlook is the increase in our anticipated EBITDA margins and free cash flow, which at the midpoint equates to 140 basis points of margin expansion year-over-year. As you've heard us say many times, we develop a three-year strategic plan annually. We then prioritize a small handful of things to focus on, and we call these breakthroughs. We then leverage the Zurn Elkay Business System to create the capabilities to bring these to life, whether it's product, channel, supply chain, sometimes it's some or all of the above.
What you're seeing in our results and outlook is the compounding benefit of the success of those things happening over the last three to four years, with the fastest-growing parts of our business also happen to be amongst our most profitable. We've also leveraged a disciplined approach to prune certain things in our business that we don't feel provide us the ability to create a sustainable competitive advantage, which then gives us the flexibility to flow resources to and reinvest the management time into things that can. Last but not least.
I think it's critical to highlight the significant competitive advantage we've created with all of our supply chain work over the last several years, which provides us enormous advantages and flexibility in these years being impacted by trade and tariff policy. The cherry on top of all this is the compounding benefit of the thousands and thousands of continuous improvement activities our people do year in, year out. The net result is a focused business that can meaningfully outgrow and serve markets with terrific profitability and cash flow that allows us to continue to invest in our business to drive even higher levels of growth and performance. With that, I'll turn it over to Dan.
Thanks, Todd. Please turn to slide number four. Our second quarter sales totaled $491 million, which represents 10% core and reported growth year-over-year, above the high end of the guidance we shared at the outset of the quarter. Our end market continued to perform in line with our expectation as our institutional end markets continue to show positive momentum, partially offset by residential and pockets of commercial softness. While we're experiencing broad-based growth across all product categories, our overperformance in the quarter was led by strong demand within our Water Safety and Control and Drinking Water product lines, both growing above the fleet average. Similar to the first quarter, we saw price contribute approximately 5% of growth in the quarter. Turning to our profitability, our second quarter adjusted EBITDA was $136 million, and our adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 120 basis points year-over-year to 27.7% in the quarter.
This exceeded the high end of our guidance range of 27%-27.5%, and this margin performance in the quarter represents our highest quarterly margin since the Zurn Elkay merger. The strong margin and year-over-year expansion was driven by operating leverage on higher volume, continued productivity from our Zurn Elkay Business System, and ongoing mix improvement as our highest margin products continue to lead our growth. With respect to the first half, our sales and EBITDA have increased by $91 million and $36 million respectively year-over-year, delivering a year-over-year incremental margin of 40%. Our first half EBITDA margin of 27.3% improved by approximately 140 basis points year-over-year. During the second quarter, we received $48 million in cash related to IEPA and reciprocal tariff refunds, inclusive of $2 million of accrued interest.
This refund is reflected in the cost of goods sold caption on our income statement and had a significant impact on our reported GAAP earnings and EPS for the quarter. I want to be clear that this item is excluded from our adjusted earnings and free cash flow. This cash receipt strengthened our already healthy balance sheet, but is not a recurring item and as such has been excluded from our adjusted results. As of June 30th, we have approximately $60 million of IEPA and reciprocal tariffs that remain uncollected and unrecognized in our financial statements. Please turn to slide five, and I'll touch on some balance sheet and leverage highlights. With respect to net debt leverage, we ended the quarter at 0.3x, the lowest leverage we've ever had as a public company.
Free cash flow in the quarter was $112 million. Our balance sheet liquidity leverage and free cash flow generation remain in excellent shape and reflect the financial flexibility we have to continue to invest in the business, as evidenced by the recently closed acquisition of Intellihot. I'll now turn the call over to Jeff to cover the transaction in more detail on page six.
Thanks, Dan. I'm excited to walk through the Intellihot acquisition we announced last week, a relationship we've cultivated for years. This transaction expands our available market by $1.1 billion, within which the tankless segment represents over $200 million today. Tankless is growing meaningfully faster than the overall commercial water heating category. It's a strong initial step into a highly complementary adjacent category and one with some of the most favorable regulatory and demand tailwinds we've seen in the space. A few drivers give us real conviction here. First, the DOE's efficiency mandate requiring new commercial water heater installations to meet condensing level efficiency. Second, we are seeing owner mandates emerge around health and safety as it relates to Legionella liability, moving brand preference to tankless. Third, tankless systems deliver a meaningfully smaller mechanical room footprint, which developers and owners increasingly value.
Fourth, tankless delivers real operating savings on a large spend category for building owners, reinforced by local and state-level efficiency mandates layered on top of federal standards. Since the announcement, we've received strong support from the industry, and our combined teams are energized by the growth opportunity ahead. Which brings me to why Intellihot itself is such a strong fit and natural complement. Like our core business, it's a specified product sold through the same rep and wholesale channels we dominate today. They have a growing install base with nearly 40% of the revenue already coming from MRO, backed by a growing certified contractor network, which we plan to bolster and leverage. Their tankless condensing water heaters deliver meaningful better efficiency cost savings than boilers and traditional tank systems for commercial and institutional customers.
Combined with Zurn Elkay's specification, contractor, and wholesaler relationships, we're confident this accelerates our product roadmaps and our growth. Shifting now over to core growth. A big part of why we consistently outperform the market and take meaningful share comes down to our commitment to the Zurn Elkay Business System. Through our business system, we continuously seek voice-of-customer feedback and look for ways to drive continuous improvement in how we serve our customers. This discipline has translated into consistent high customer ratings and loyalty, which we do not take for granted. We continue to challenge our teams and partners to find ways to improve. We feel that we've developed the best commercial team and local rep agencies in the industry. Over the past four years, we've made sustained investments in new product development technology that supports ease of doing business and our technical and commercial resources.
We've used 80/20 to create focus and over-resource our largest growth opportunities, such as Drinking Water, high growth regions, and key institutional verticals. Together, these investments are what allow us to deliver consistent above-market growth. Right now, Drinking Water Safety and Control, and Flow Systems are our fastest-growing businesses, and all three operate above fleet average margins. With our strategy, our investment in NPD and adjacencies, and our focus on operational and commercial excellence through ZEBS, we are confident we can continue to outperform the market. With that, I want to share two wins in this past quarter that show the strategy playing out. Delivering over $3 million of sales, first, we leveraged the Drinking Water facilities relationship to address a health and safety concern tied to recent Legionella outbreaks.
We worked with the end user to upgrade the Drinking Water and commercial faucet units to Zurn Elkay with connected technology, solutions that monitor usage and automatically flush water lines during low-use periods to help reduce Legionella risk and lower the cost of their overall water management plan. Second, out of our institutional vertical focus, we leveraged our specifier and contractor relationships to pull through our full suite of products on a recent hospital expansion in Virginia. As we continue to build out our adjacencies and the breadth of our product offering, the value we deliver to specifiers, contractors, wholesalers, and owners will continue to increase. With that, I'll pass it over to Dave.
Thanks, Jeff. I'm on slide seven and wanted to give a quick update on our margin performance over the past couple of years. This is the output of our relentless commitment to the Zurn Elkay Business System and getting better each day. On a trailing 12-month basis, our adjusted EBITDA margins have improved 660 basis points from Q1 2023 to Q2 2026. On a point-to-point basis, our adjusted EBITDA margins are up 820 basis points over the last 14 quarters. That starts with 19.5% margins in Q1 2023 compared to this quarter's adjusted EBITDA margins of 27.7%. Talked about it last quarter and will provide some additional color on our margin improvement over the last three years. First, part of the Zurn Elkay Business System is sharing ideas and wins across the organization so that we can replicate successes.
These #CI ideas, as we call them internally, are associate-led ideas that save time, eliminate waste, enhance a process, or reduce cost, to name a few examples. No single #CI on its own is material. They do become material when we have thousands submitted across the organization throughout the year. The graph on the left-hand side of the slide highlights how #CI submissions have grown over the years. Our associates across the organization have bought into the concept and are continuing to find ways to improve their work each and every day. Second, we are seeing unit volume growth in the most profitable areas of our business. Water Safety and Control, Flow Systems, and Drinking Water have all grown over the last several years while we have continued to systematically exit our lowest margin products within the portfolio through the application of 80/20.
This strategy has allowed us to reposition resources to focus on growth opportunities while simultaneously reducing complexity and excess cost in our business. I'm going to highlight Drinking Water on our next slide, but take filtration as an example. The year before our merger with Elkay, the filtration business was less than $25 million of sales. Now, four years later, that high-margin business has more than doubled as it will end at over $60 million of sales this year. We did this with focus and intention around filtration, building a dedicated team to focus on filters, investing in innovation, and listening to our customers' filtration needs. Our 80/20 work is not a once-and-done process, but something we are continuing to look at.
Understanding customer buying patterns, eliminating unnecessary SKU complexity in our offering, and making sure that we focus on the core products that matter and make sense from a margin perspective. You will see us continue to challenge our product portfolio and deploy 80/20 on a go-forward basis. Third, we continue to make positive structural changes, consolidating our footprint to reduce overhead, introducing and sustaining the Zurn Elkay Business System lean tools into the Elkay manufacturing facilities, and continuing to challenge our strategy around internal manufacturing versus outsourced alternatives. Lastly, our supply chain has been a clear competitive advantage that has allowed us to improve profitability while successfully navigating the tariff environment. Our efforts to move sourcing out of China have proven to provide us with both geopolitical risk mitigation as well as a lower landed cost profile.
A combination of these four factors have led to solid incremental margins, which we are currently seeing at around 40%. From 2024 to 2025, our actual incremental EBITDA margins were 40%. Year-to-date this year, our incremental margins have also been at 40%, ahead of the original 35% incremental margin that we guided to at the start of the year. Turn to slide eight. It's been four years since the completion of the merger with Elkay, and we tend to get a lot of questions on the Drinking Water business, so wanted to provide an update.
Our most notable product launch since the merger was the recent introduction of Elkay Pro Filtration. We listened to our customers, solicited feedback from installers, maintainers, and users, and built Pro Filtration with them in mind, incorporating their feedback and addressing their concerns. Simply stated, Pro Filtration clearly differentiates Elkay from our competitive set.
The list of upgrades within Pro Filtration is significant. Filters are now at eye level and can be changed with a simple drop-down cover and quarter turn on the actual filter. Anyone can now change a filter in a matter of seconds. Historically, our units had one filter. Pro Filtration now has the ability to house two filters, allowing customers the flexibility to increase their capacity, increase performance, or protect against sediment through a variety of filter combination options suited to optimize customer needs. We've updated the aesthetics of the unit to appeal to architects and engineers.
Pro Filtration has an enhanced user interface to more clearly articulate the remaining life of the filter. The units are smart and connected to allow for notifications on filter changes or remote line flushing. Filters now are designed with a proprietary head that does not allow for counterfeit filters to work in the units.
As I will talk about in a minute, we updated our line of filters as well. So far, we've seen very positive reaction in the market to Pro Filtration. Our team is working with architects and engineers across the country to change the legacy Elkay specs to Pro Filtration based on the improved features and benefits. We've also put a significant focus on not just selling any unit, but selling filtered units. Our internal team and third-party reps are focused on growing the installed base of filtered units as we retrofit the large installed base. In 2023, 50% of the units we sold were filtered. In 2026, over 60% of the units we will sell will be filtered. Our internal goals are to continue to increase that to 70% filtered in 2027. Team's efforts, legislation, and water quality concerns are all helping to drive the percent of filtered units higher.
Lastly, the technology around filtration has improved considerably over the last four years. At the time of the Elkay merger, Elkay's main filter was a 3,000-gallon lead filter, and we've evolved the filter technology over time to provide both longer lasting and higher performing filters. In 2022, we added a high capacity 6,000-gallon lead filter to help reduce the number of filter changes our customers needed to make. Then in 2023, we released the first point of use PFOA and PFOS certified filter that was rated for 2,250 gallons. In 2024, all of our filters were certified to protect against microplastics, and later in 2024, we added a pre-sediment filter to our lineup.
In Q3 of 2025, we started shipping units with a proprietary head to prevent counterfeit filters from being used, and at the same time, launched the ability to incorporate UV filter technology in Pro units and added a longer lasting 10,000-gallon filter, further upping the bar from our current industry leading 6,000-gallon filter. We also added a total PFOS filter rated for 4,000 gallons, which is the longest lasting total PFOS filter in the industry. Pro Filtration customers get longer lasting filters with less maintenance events, and the maintenance event itself is significantly easier and quicker than non-Pro units. Drinking Water has performed ahead of our expectations through the first four years, and we see a lot of opportunity for continued growth in the coming years with Drinking Water. I'll turn the call back over to Dan to walk through our outlook.
Thanks, Dave. Now onto the guidance on slide nine. For the third quarter of 2026, we are projecting core sales growth of 6%-7% over the year and adjusted EBITDA margin around 28%. Our core growth rate in the third quarter and second half reflects the roll-off of last year's tariff-related price increases that largely became effective in the back half of calendar 2025. As a result of our strong first half performance, we are also updating and raising our full year 2026 outlook. We now expect core sales growth for the fourth quarter to be in the mid-single digits, and I would estimate the Intellihot contribution for the second half to be approximately $18 million in net sales for the last five months of the year.
Inclusive of the recently closed acquisition of Intellihot, we expect full year adjusted EBITDA to range between $503 million and $513 million, and full year free cash flow to be at least $350 million, excluding the past or future IEPA reciprocal tariff refunds. Lastly, our outlook fully contemplates the transition away from the expired Section 122 tariffs to the new Section 301 tariffs announced late last week. In the guidance slides, we have included our third quarter and full year outlook assumptions for interest expense, non-cash stock comp, depreciation and amortization, adjusted tax rate, and diluted shares outstanding. Please note that the D&A figures do not include the incremental impact of the Intellihot acquisition, as we have not yet contemplated a preliminary purchase price allocation. We will update our outlook for these items on our next quarterly call. We will now open the call up for questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and enter the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. If you are called upon to ask your question and are listening via loudspeaker on your device, please pick up your handset and ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question. On today's event, we request everyone to please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up only. Thank you. Your first question comes from the line of Bryan Blair with Oppenheimer, your line is now open.
Thank you. Morning everyone? Another really solid quarter.
Morning, Bryan.
Hi. Morning. You mentioned the continued outgrowth of your higher margin platforms, Water Safety and Control, Drinking Water Flow Systems. Curious if you could rank order those. I assume that Drinking Water is leading the pack. Then Hygienic and Environmental, how much below the growth rates of the other platforms is that currently?
Yeah. I don't know that it's discernible between Water Safety and Control and Drinking Water are sort of a little bit above flow control, Flow Systems. Then Hygienic and Environmental is still positive, and much more so on a unit volume basis because that's a more competitive category. It's our smallest category in general. It's still positive. That's the ranking as you've asked the question.
Okay. Understood. Intellihot is a very intriguing deal for your team. Maybe offer a little more color on the uniqueness of the asset, why Intellihot specifically was the right deal for you to enter this adjacency. Then you gave us a snapshot of current operations and profitability and the medium long-term outlook and what your team can do with the business. Can you offer any additional detail on what we should anticipate for year one or 2027 as we contemplate shorter-term outlook?
Yeah. As you probably can assume, it's a complicated category to get into. When you look at the competitive set, it's a combination of foreign suppliers and some domestic suppliers, but the roadmap to develop technology is pretty extensive, and it's one of those, sort of the last remaining business around in that category with the best technology. It was a founder, inventor sort of led company for a long time, and we stayed close to it. Eventually, it became an opportunity for us to acquire. It's one of those things where if you would've asked us seven years or eight years ago what would've been the best target, we would've told you this. We stuck with it, and were able to sort of find a transaction that worked.
I think we're really excited about getting into the category because it's really a very positive extension to us, in the mechanical room, particularly in non-res. As it relates to next year, we honestly didn't buy it for next year. We bought it because we do think this can be a $100 million business in the next five years or six years with 30% margins. It's already got 50% gross margin, as Jeff pointed out, a nice both MRO and retrofit opportunity. The power for this is something that we've coveted for a long time. We've cultivated this particular business based on the technology that it has relative to anybody in the industry. We think we're going to treat it and act like this is something we're going to own forever and grow a meaningful share in.
I think the sketch that we gave you for 2026, assume that it's going to grow nicely and we're going to work the margins, but as Jeff said, part of this is the longer game of driving specification preference, adding innovation, bringing it to, and alongside the content we already provide a lot of the customers we serve today. I think we're thrilled to have gotten into this category, and we think that there's more to do.
All understood. Makes sense. Appreciate the comment.
Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Krill with Deutsche Bank, your line is now open.
Hi. Thanks. Good morning everyone? One ask on price. I think it's great to see realization stay elevated and at 5% in the second quarter. For the full year, I think, is it fair that you're trending towards the high end of the 3%-4% you cited? Can you give us any update on have you had to put through more price or are close to needing more price mid-year, or have these been more surgical changes with inflation, tariffs a little bit more under control this year? Thanks.
Yeah. I think it is sort of in that 3%-4% range, and it obviously varies by category and competitive set. You can sort of back check that by thinking about $50 million in refunds against the prior year of about $1.7 billion, and you get to right around 3 points of price for the year. We haven't really had to put in any additional price throughout 2026. I think as we look forward, it looks like sort of a normal pricing year for us, as opposed to being any elevated. It's 3 points-4 points for the year, points of market growth in the remainder, and some of the things that we've talked about this morning. Nothing out of the ordinary.
I think that the new tariff regime that was announced, we had sort of assumed something would replace what was in place, and so no hiccups there. I think as Dave highlighted, we continue to make progress.
Great. Very helpful. Then circling back to Intellihot on the margin expansion. I think great to see the gross margins are very similar to a modestly above Zurn, so no problem there. Can you unpack a little bit like the progression of the EBIT margin getting those higher? Is this some combination of private company, elevated cost structure you can wring out and then also leverage your scale purchasing powers? Any more help there, and is it a somewhat linear progression over this timeframe, up to 30%? Thanks.
I think the answer is simply yes to all of the above.
Okay. Fair enough. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Nathan Jones with Stifel, your line is now open.
Morning, everyone?
Morning.
I've got a bit of a longer-term or maybe more philosophical question for you, Todd. You talked about every year having a three-year strat plan that has just a handful of things that are the primary focus in each year. Can you talk about what you think those few areas of primary focus will be for 2027?
I think it'll be a continued progress on adjacencies. Categories that are in and around what we do today in the $100 million-$200 million range, where we think over a three-year period, we can generate $20 million-$30 million of revenue by launching the product, leveraging the channels and relationships we have, pulling it through, and obviously leveraging our sourcing platform. Those are the types of things that we've been working on. You'll see some of those be announced over the course of the back half of this year and into 2027. As we go through the fall here, it'll probably be a handful of things like that. Expanding our available served market by $100 million-$200 million a year across three or four different things is the way to think about it, Nathan.
Then maybe one for Dave or Dan, looking backwards a little bit. The 660 basis points of margin improvement over the last few years, I wonder if you could give us a little more details on the different buckets that have driven that. I know there's been things like probably positive price/cost, mix, obviously with higher margin stuff growing faster, productivity. Could you just give us the main contributors maybe? I'm sure you don't want to break it out per basis point kind of thing, but maybe rank order the buckets in order of their contribution to that margin expansion over the last few years. Thanks for taking the questions.
Sure. I think if you go back to where that graph started, Nathan, that was at the time of the Elkay merger. Call it the first $50 million of profit improvement was really around some of the synergies with Elkay. At a very high level, the first $25 million were a lot of SG&A cost out type activities. The next $25 million were more structural things. Footprint, reducing our overhead, putting through some of the process improvements in the Elkay manufacturing sites. Even beyond that, while all that was going on, you've got the mix factor, you've got the just CI, continuous improvement activities that we're doing on a day in and day out basis. I think all those things are combining for what you see in the margins.
The other thing I'll point out is just we did a nice job with 80/20 along the way. Reducing some of those low margin sinks in the beginning, we've continued to prune and do 80/20 in the product portfolios along the way, that's also helped. Reducing some of those low margin products and focusing on the higher growing, faster margin products.
We're ready for another question.
Your next question comes from the line of James Ko with Jefferies, your line is now open.
Good morning? Thanks for taking questions here. I wanted to touch on the Intellihot again here. You kind of framed the hot water heating addressable market as $1.1 billion and tankless at like $200 million today. Yeah. Are you targeting that full $1.1 billion water heating market over time, or is the ambition specifically the tankless segment?
Yeah, thanks. That's a good question. I think as you think about the $1.1 billion, that is commercial water heating, that's going to be over the 200,000 BTU threshold. This is more your large institutional commercial jobs. If you think about the tankless portion of it, tankless is a little bit over $200 million today. That organically is going to grow just with the industry trends that are taking place. If you look at our commercial engine, we feel that we have an ability to accelerate that and also take our unfair share of the $200 million. Over time, the $1.1 billion is absolutely what we're targeting. It'll take time to move that from traditional boiler and tank units to tankless.
Got it. That's very helpful. Touching on incremental margins here, you talked about that being over around 40%, way above 30%-35% long term kind of framework that you guided to. I think you guys talked about revisiting this framework when you guys are ready. Given that you guys have been, what is it, outperforming that guidance for a while, are you now ready to formally raise that incremental margin guidance? If not, what is the kind of threshold that would get you to raise that?
Yeah, James. Again, I think when you say formally, I guess we've always provided that as sort of a guidepost for people to think about. Obviously with some of the progress we've made over the last several years and many of the things that Dave just touched on with respect to faster growing, higher margin supply chain benefits and all that, at least in the near term, it's at 40%. I think I would view it as a snapshot today and really sort of moving forward is sort of the same kind of general guideline. I don't totally understand like the formal part of what you're asking us, but yeah. There may be periods where we invest more in new products. For the present, with the pace that we can see, I think that the 40% is a reasonable way to think about our incremental margins.
Great. Thanks for taking questions.
Your next question comes from the line of Edward Magi with BNP Paribas, your line is now open.
Morning guys? Thanks for taking my questions. Starting here with the Intellihot. Again, I know we talked about some sizable competitors in the space, I have to think that, given some of your prepared remarks on the quality of the asset, that this would be something that they might have wanted to have. Any color on the process, and if it was a competitive bidding process, that would be helpful to start.
It really wasn't a process. Again, I think as we've highlighted in the past and with essentially all the transactions we've done over the years, and even with legacy companies, we prefer to develop relationships and find the right time. In this case, I think the first contact was somewhere around 2016. There was not a process, it was really a relationship. Frankly, I think they felt like this was the right place and the right home for it. It's a technology leader in a space that is maybe not as progressive as the industry is trending. With us, by entering the category with the technology leader as our sort of anchor into this, I think they viewed that as a great home as well. That's how we got to the finish line.
Yeah, I can appreciate that. It sounds like an exciting asset coming in, and maybe the follow-up would be on some of the stuff that's come out of the portfolio over the last couple of years. Can we just click into 80/20 a little bit more, how you guys have gone about identifying some of those businesses to walk away from? Moving forward, is there any more areas that you guys have identified specifically where you would expect to move away from in the coming year or two?
Yeah. As a precursor to our strategic planning process, we go through a detailed product lifecycle management review, where we look at all of our products, our categories, our channels, and really sort of dive into the competitive dynamics, the outlook, and also investments required in things that we know we want to invest in. Falling out of there's usually been a handful of things. Early on, as Dave highlighted, residential sinks sold through big box retail. There's hundreds of competitors. The channel's really disrupted with online activity, and it's a big fixed cost investment. We made the, at the moment, the difficult decision to do it, but you can see the benefits long-term, not only in the profitability and the growth, but the management time and the resources to reinvest in faster-growing things.
As we sit here today, obviously we're going to go through that review, and of course there might be things that fall out. I don't think that's going to be anything significant in any particular way, but there is always going to be something that we're looking at, saying, should we continue to invest in this at the expense of things that can grow faster? That's, to me, the full life cycle of 80/20. It's one thing just to exit it, but the real power of 80/20 is focusing your resources on things that actually grow and can outrun the deficit that you're creating by exiting something. As we go through the summer here, we'll go through that review, and do I expect that it'll be anything significant? No. Do I think that there likely could be some? Of course.
All great color. Thanks, guys.
Yep.
Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Reive with RBC Capital Markets, your line is now open.
Thank you. Good morning everyone? You talked about growing filtration attachment rates in Drinking Water, but also shifting the mix towards retrofit and replacement, which is now about 50%. How important is expanding either recurring revenue and MRO exposure as part of the adjacent growth strategy? Is there a long-term mix you're targeting?
Yeah, within Drinking Water, we've always focused on growing the installed base of filtered units. You see in some of the numbers that I talked about how that filtered install base has grown. That growth in the filtered install base has then directly led to a nicer mix in terms of how big the filter business is itself. A combination of making the units easier to change filters, doing some things to enhance the attachment rate, has all led to that filter portion of Drinking Water growing even faster.
Jeff, maybe one thing to add to what Dave said. I think if you look at our new construction versus MRO retrofit/replace, as you highlight, it is about 50%. I don't know that we have a target other than to say it certainly creates a hedge against new construction activity. I don't know that we have a specific target, but with the massive installed base of not only Drinking Water, but Water Safety and Control, Hygienic and Environmental products, all those do undergo a combination of Placement due to usage, as buildings and facilities get repurposed, there is a retrofit opportunity. A 50/50 mix is a great place to start. You're seeing that sort of play out even with Intellihot and obviously Drinking Water.
It's a great point to make that 50% of our business that is MRO retrofit replace is sort of immune from whatever activity happens in new construction.
Very helpful. Then as a follow-up, just on the organic opportunity to expand in adjacencies, is there a framework for how much annual organic growth you'd like adjacencies to contribute? Should we think of this as 50 basis points a year, 100 basis points, or something more meaningful over time?
I don't know that I would give it to you per year. I think it's going to be one of those things where as we look at these $100 million-$200 million markets and bring things where we can develop a meaningful share in, we're trying to think about it as, a $20 million-$30 million opportunity over three years. It may not all show up in year one. It may be more aggressive in year two. I think it's really a function of identifying categories where we can win and build a competitive advantage, develop the products, source them the right way, work through the specifications, and then begin to pull it through.
The compounding benefit of that is what you're seeing in some of that outgrowth today, and our objective is to continue to do that pretty much in the same way over the coming years.
Great. Thank you.
Yeah.
Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Hammond with KeyBanc Capital Markets, your line is now open.
Hey, good morning, everyone. This is David Tarantino on for Jeff. Maybe following up on Intellihot, how should we think about the levers you can pull to grab more of the TAM aside from just the shift to tankless from the broader end market? I guess, what are the opportunities to grow spec share, and are there gaps you'd like to fill from a product perspective, either organically or through bolt-ons?
Well, maybe a way to think about it, David, is when you think about some of the regulatory tailwinds, some of the efficiency tailwinds, we think that that tankless addressable market today is growing in the mid to high single digits relative to the remainder of the category, which is growing 1%-2% a year. Again, this is all sort of ex price. So we think we're in a great segment of a very big market that will convert over a long period of time. So we're not anticipating big changes in the size of the served market, but we do expect that tankless category to grow. So if you marry that with our ability to leverage the portfolio we have and specification capabilities we have with the full suite of influencers, right? Owners, engineers, architects, wholesalers.
We think that not only can the spec share go up, but the category itself will grow, and on top of that, our ability to leverage everything else we do with these customers will aid in all of that pull through. Jeff, I don't know if you had anything else.
Yeah. I think as you asked the question, this is a heavy spec product. As Todd mentioned, these are projects that we're already working on. As you think about the beginning of the construction cycle, starting with our waterworks and Flow Systems portfolio. We feel that these are engineers that we're already having deep relationships and design discussions with and contractors that are using the breadth of our portfolio. We think that with those leverages, we can take our unfair share of that TAM versus Intellihot being a single-line manufacturer and trying to get leverage with not only the rep network, but also the specifiers, contractors, and wholesalers.
Okay, great. That's helpful color. Maybe looking at the guide for 3Q and 4Q, how should we think about the underlying assumptions here from an end market standpoint? I assume the core growth step down is more moderating price as you lap kind of the tariff increases last year. Is there also some conservatism here, especially in 4Q on the end markets?
You're absolutely right in that the compounding benefit of the price that was put in place is less in the second half versus the first half. We're still seeing good unit volume growth. I wouldn't call out any discernible changes in our end market view. We've given you a Q3, we've got a place marker in for Q4, we'll update what that looks like when we announce Q3 earnings right around Halloween.
Great. Thanks, guys.
That concludes the question and answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Bobbi Belstner for closing remarks.
Thanks everyone for joining the call today. We appreciate your interest in Zurn Elkay Water Solutions, and we look forward to providing our next update when we announce our third quarter results in October. Have a great day.
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining, you may now disconnect.
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-07-28Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Q2 Adjusted Earnings, Revenue Rise
MT Newswires
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Q2 Adjusted Earnings, Revenue Rise
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions (ZWS) reported Q2 adjusted earnings late Tuesday of $0.50 per diluted sha
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-07-28Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Reports Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results
Business Wire
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Reports Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results
Investor call scheduled for Wednesday, July 29, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time MILWAUKEE, July 28, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (NYSE:ZWS) Second Quarter Highlights Net sales in the quarter were $491 million compared with $445 million in last year’s June quarter (+10% core sales(1)). Net income from continuing operations was $113 million (diluted EPS from continuing operations of $0.67) compared with net income from continuing operations of $50 million (diluted EPS from continuing operations of $0.29) in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA(1) was $136 million (27.7% of net sales) compared with $118 million (26.5% of net sales) in last year's second quarter. Adjusted EPS(1) was $0.50 compared with $0.42 in the year-ago quarter. Net debt leverage(1) of 0.3x as of June 30, 2026. Deployed $50 million to repurchase 1.0 million shares of common stock in the quarter. Received $48 million of cash refunds related to previously paid International Emergency Economic Powers Act ("IEEPA") reciprocal tariffs (benefit recorded within cost of sales in the condensed consolidated statements of operations and excluded from adjusted EBITDA(1)). Todd A. Adams, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We delivered a solid second quarter, first half and are raising our outlook for the full year. Core sales(1) grew 10% and adjusted EBITDA margins(1) of 27.7% expanded by 120 basis points over the prior year second quarter. We continue to leverage the Zurn Elkay Business System to drive above market growth in targeted areas as well as a higher baseline of incremental margins through our relentless deployment of 80/20, our supply chain initiatives and the continuous improvement our associates drive every day. Our robust and increasing levels of free cash flow(1) provide us with the flexibility to continue to be both disciplined and strategic, investing in stock repurchases, a growing dividend and acquisitions while maintaining a low leverage profile. In the quarter we repurchased $50 million dollars of our own shares, bringing the total to $100 million over the first half of 2026 while also paying $37 million in dividends." Adams continued, "We’re pleased to have completed the acquisition of Intellihot, which has been a long-term proprietary cultivation of a strategic opportunity in an adjacency we had wanted to enter. Intellihot is a pionee…Read full documentShow less
Investor call scheduled for Wednesday, July 29, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time MILWAUKEE, July 28, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (NYSE:ZWS) Second Quarter Highlights Net sales in the quarter were $491 million compared with $445 million in last year’s June quarter (+10% core sales(1)). Net income from continuing operations was $113 million (diluted EPS from continuing operations of $0.67) compared with net income from continuing operations of $50 million (diluted EPS from continuing operations of $0.29) in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA(1) was $136 million (27.7% of net sales) compared with $118 million (26.5% of net sales) in last year's second quarter. Adjusted EPS(1) was $0.50 compared with $0.42 in the year-ago quarter. Net debt leverage(1) of 0.3x as of June 30, 2026. Deployed $50 million to repurchase 1.0 million shares of common stock in the quarter. Received $48 million of cash refunds related to previously paid International Emergency Economic Powers Act ("IEEPA") reciprocal tariffs (benefit recorded within cost of sales in the condensed consolidated statements of operations and excluded from adjusted EBITDA(1)). Todd A. Adams, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We delivered a solid second quarter, first half and are raising our outlook for the full year. Core sales(1) grew 10% and adjusted EBITDA margins(1) of 27.7% expanded by 120 basis points over the prior year second quarter. We continue to leverage the Zurn Elkay Business System to drive above market growth in targeted areas as well as a higher baseline of incremental margins through our relentless deployment of 80/20, our supply chain initiatives and the continuous improvement our associates drive every day. Our robust and increasing levels of free cash flow(1) provide us with the flexibility to continue to be both disciplined and strategic, investing in stock repurchases, a growing dividend and acquisitions while maintaining a low leverage profile. In the quarter we repurchased $50 million dollars of our own shares, bringing the total to $100 million over the first half of 2026 while also paying $37 million in dividends." Adams continued, "We’re pleased to have completed the acquisition of Intellihot, which has been a long-term proprietary cultivation of a strategic opportunity in an adjacency we had wanted to enter. Intellihot is a pioneer in high-efficiency water heating, offering tankless gas and electric water heaters into our core markets and verticals that provide category leading efficiency and reliability. We see significant long-term upside in the business as we move through a thoughtful integration plan over the coming years. Beyond Intellihot, we remain on track to launch several new products into adjacent categories in the back half of 2026 and into 2027 that expand our served available market, that in time, we believe will continue to help us drive the above-market growth we have delivered for 15+ years." Third Quarter and Full Year Outlook "We continue to approach our outlook through a prudent, quarter-by-quarter lens. For the third quarter, we expect core sales(1) growth of approximately 6% to 7% and adjusted EBITDA margins(1) to be around 28%. We currently expect mid-single digit core(1) growth in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2026, adjusted EBITDA(1) between $503 million to $513 million, which would represent year-over-year margin expansion of roughly 140 basis points compared to 2025 (excluding all tariff related refunds). We expect Intellihot sales to approximate $16 million for the remainder of 2026. Finally, we expect full year free cash flow(1) of at least $350 million, which also excludes the net impact of tariff related refunds we've already received." Second Quarter 2026 Overview Net sales were $491.0 million and $444.5 million during the three months ended June 30, 2026 and June 30, 2025, respectively, an increase of 10% year over year. Core sales improved 10% year over year, including growth in all product categories. During the three months ended June 30, 2026, income from operations was $152.3 million compared to $77.6 million during the three months ended June 30, 2025. During the quarter ended June 30, 2026, the Company received a $47.6 million IEEPA reciprocal tariff refund. Excluding this item, income from operations increased by $27.1 million, an increase of 380 basis points year over year as a result of the favorable impact of year-over-year sales growth (inclusive of price realization) and Zurn Elkay Business System led productivity initiatives. Adjusted EBITDA(1) was $136.0 million, or 27.7% of net sales, during the three months ended June 30, 2026 compared to $117.9 million, or 26.5% of net sales, during the three months ended June 30, 2025. Non-GAAP Financial Measures The following non-GAAP financial measures are utilized by management in comparing our operating performance on a consistent basis. We believe that these financial measures are appropriate to enhance an overall understanding of our underlying operating performance trends compared to historical and prospective periods and our peers. Management also believes that these measures are useful to investors in their analysis of our results of operations and provide improved comparability between fiscal periods as well as insight into the compliance with our debt covenants. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information calculated in accordance with GAAP. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures presented above to our GAAP results has been provided in the financial tables included in this press release. Core Sales Core sales excludes the impact of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and foreign currency translation. Management believes that core sales facilitates easier and more meaningful comparison of our net sales performance with prior and future periods and to our peers. We exclude the effect of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures because the nature, size and number of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures can vary dramatically from period to period and between us and our peers, and can also obscure underlying business trends and make comparisons of long-term performance difficult. We exclude the effect of foreign currency translation from this measure because the volatility of currency translation is not under management's control. Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Earnings Per Share Adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share (calculated on a diluted basis) exclude actuarial gains and losses on pension and postretirement benefit obligations, restructuring and other similar charges, gains or losses on divestitures, discontinued operations, gains or losses on extinguishment of debt, the impact of acquisition-related fair value adjustments in connection with purchase accounting, amortization of intangible assets, the adjustment to state inventories at last-in, first-out costs, and other non-operational, non-cash or non-recurring gains and losses, net of their income tax impact. The tax rates used to calculate adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share are based on a transaction specific basis. We believe that adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share are useful in assessing our financial performance by excluding items that are not indicative of our core operating performance or that may obscure trends useful in evaluating our continuing results of operations. EBITDA EBITDA represents earnings from continuing operations before interest and other debt related activities, taxes, depreciation and amortization. EBITDA is presented because it is an important supplemental measure of performance and it is frequently used by analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry. EBITDA is also presented and compared by analysts and investors in evaluating our ability to meet debt service obligations. Other companies in our industry may calculate EBITDA differently. EBITDA is not a measurement of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities or as a measure of liquidity or an alternative to net income as indicators of operating performance or any other measures of performance derived in accordance with GAAP. Because EBITDA is calculated before recurring cash charges, including interest expense and taxes, and is not adjusted for capital expenditures or other recurring cash requirements of the business, it should not be considered as a measure of discretionary cash available to invest in the growth of the business. Adjusted EBITDA "Adjusted EBITDA" is the term we use to describe EBITDA as defined and adjusted in our credit agreement, which is net income, adjusted for the items summarized in the Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures table below. Adjusted EBITDA is intended to show our unleveraged, pre-tax operating results and therefore reflects our financial performance based on operational factors, excluding non-operational, non-cash or non-recurring gains or losses. It is also provided to aid investors in understanding our compliance with our debt covenants. Adjusted EBITDA is not a presentation made in accordance with GAAP, and our use of the term Adjusted EBITDA varies from others in our industry. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as an alternative to net income, income from operations or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA has important limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation, or as a substitute for, analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. For example, Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect: (a) our capital expenditures, future requirements for capital expenditures or contractual commitments; (b) changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs; (c) the significant interest expenses, or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payments, on our debt; (d) tax payments that represent a reduction in cash available to us; (e) any cash requirements for the assets being depreciated and amortized that may have to be replaced in the future; or (f) the impact of earnings or charges resulting from matters that we and the lenders under our credit agreement may not consider indicative of our ongoing operations. In particular, our definition of Adjusted EBITDA allows us to add back certain non-cash, non-operating or non-recurring charges that are deducted in calculating net income, even though these are expenses that may recur, vary greatly and are difficult to predict and can represent the effect of long-term strategies as opposed to short-term results. "Adjusted EBITDA Margin" is the term we use to describe Adjusted EBITDA divided by net sales. In addition, certain of these expenses can represent the reduction of cash that could be used for other corporate purposes. Further, although not included in the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA below, the measure may at times allow us to add estimated cost savings and operating synergies related to operational changes ranging from acquisitions to dispositions to restructurings and/or exclude one-time transition expenditures that we anticipate we will need to incur to realize cost savings before such savings have occurred. Further, management and various investors use the ratio of total debt less cash to Adjusted EBITDA (which includes a full pro forma last-twelve-month impact of acquisitions), or "net debt leverage", as a measure of our financial strength and ability to incur incremental indebtedness when making key investment decisions and evaluating us against peers. Lastly, management and various investors use the ratio of the change in Adjusted EBITDA divided by the change in net sales (referred to as "incremental margin" in the case of an increase in net sales or "decremental margin" in the case of a decrease in net sales) as an additional measure of our financial performance and when making key investment decisions and evaluating us against peers. Free Cash Flow We define Free Cash Flow as cash flow from operations less capital expenditures and IEEPA reciprocal tariff refunds, and we use this metric in analyzing our ability to service and repay our debt and to forecast future periods. However, this measure does not represent funds available for investment or other discretionary uses since it does not deduct cash used to service our debt. We define Free Cash Flow Conversion as Free Cash Flow divided by net income. Return on Invested Capital ("ROIC") ROIC is used because we believe it is an important supplemental measure of financial performance and it is also currently a performance measure under our long-term incentive plan. ROIC is frequently used by analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry. ROIC is also used by investors and analysts to evaluate management’s deployment of capital to create shareholder value. We define ROIC as tax-effected net operating income for the last 12 months divided by average total invested capital over a rolling four-quarter period. Total invested capital is defined as shareholders equity plus debt, less cash and cash equivalents. Other companies may not define or calculate ROIC in the same way. About Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Named one of America’s Most Responsible Companies and one of America’s Greenest Companies by Newsweek and one of the World’s Best Companies for Sustainable Growth by TIME, Zurn Elkay Water Solutions is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is a growth-oriented, pure-play water management business that designs, procures, manufactures and markets what we believe to be the broadest sustainable product portfolio of specification-driven water management solutions to improve health, hydration, human safety and the environment. The Zurn Elkay product portfolio includes professional grade water safety and control products, flow systems products, hygienic and environmental products and filtered drinking water products for public and private spaces. Learn more at www.zurnelkay.com. Conference Call Details Zurn Elkay Water Solutions will hold a conference call and webcast presentation on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss its second quarter 2026 results, provide a general business update and respond to investor questions. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Chairman and CEO, Todd Adams, CFO, Dan Klun, COO, Dave Pauli, and President, Jeff Schoon, will host the call and webcast. The conference call can be accessed via telephone as follows: Domestic toll-free: 800-715-9871 International toll: 646-307-1963 Access Code: 6071902 A live webcast of the call will also be available on the Company's investor relations website. Please go to the website (investors.zurnelkay.com) at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the call to register, download and install any necessary audio software. If you are unable to participate during the live teleconference, a replay of the conference call will be available as a webcast on the Company's investor relations website. Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Statements Information in this release may involve outlook, expectations, beliefs, plans, intentions, strategies or other statements regarding the future, which are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based on information available to Zurn Elkay Water Solutions as of the date of this release, and Zurn Elkay Water Solutions assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. The statements in this release are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results could differ materially from current expectations. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences. Please refer to "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in our report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2025, as well as the Company’s subsequent annual, quarterly and current reports filed on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a further discussion of the factors and risks associated with the business. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260728985627/en/ Contacts Bobbi BelstnerVice President, Corporate Controller414.361.0122
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-07-28Zurn Water (ZWS) Beats Q2 Earnings and Revenue Estimates
Zacks
Zurn Water (ZWS) Beats Q2 Earnings and Revenue Estimates
Zurn Water (ZWS) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.5 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.47 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.42 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +6.38%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this motion control and water management company would post earnings of $0.37 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.41, delivering a surprise of +10.81%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times. Zurn Water, which belongs to the Zacks Waste Removal Services industry, posted revenues of $491 million for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.78%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $444.5 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Zurn Water shares have added about 4.9% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 8.3%. While Zurn Water has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Zurn Water was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's…Read full documentShow less
Zurn Water (ZWS) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.5 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.47 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.42 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +6.38%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this motion control and water management company would post earnings of $0.37 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.41, delivering a surprise of +10.81%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times. Zurn Water, which belongs to the Zacks Waste Removal Services industry, posted revenues of $491 million for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.78%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $444.5 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Zurn Water shares have added about 4.9% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 8.3%. While Zurn Water has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Zurn Water was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.47 on $482.3 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $1.75 on $1.83 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Waste Removal Services is currently in the top 37% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. One other stock from the same industry, LanzaTech Global, Inc. (LNZA), is yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 14. This company is expected to post quarterly loss of $0.76 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +94.9%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. LanzaTech Global, Inc.'s revenues are expected to be $13.1 million, up 44.3% from the year-ago quarter. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor (ZWS) : Free Stock Analysis Report LanzaTech Global, Inc. (LNZA) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-07-27Zurn Elkay (ZWS) Reports Q2: Everything You Need To Know Ahead Of Earnings
StockStory
Zurn Elkay (ZWS) Reports Q2: Everything You Need To Know Ahead Of Earnings
Water management solutions company Zurn Elkay (NYSE:ZWS) will be announcing earnings results this Tuesday after market close. Here’s what to expect. Zurn Elkay beat analysts’ revenue expectations last quarter, reporting revenues of $433 million, up 11.4% year on year. It was an exceptional quarter for the company, with a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates. Is Zurn Elkay a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members. This quarter, the market is expecting Zurn Elkay’s revenue to grow 8.7% year on year, in line with the 7.9% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business will stay the course heading into earnings. Zurn Elkay has a history of exceeding Wall Street’s expectations. Looking at Zurn Elkay’s peers in the building products segment, some have already reported their Q2 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Apogee’s revenues decreased 1.1% year on year, beating analysts’ expectations by 3.4%, and AZZ reported revenues up 6.3%, topping estimates by 3.2%. AZZ traded down 1.9% following the results. Read our full analysis of Apogee’s results here and AZZ’s results here. Over the last year or so, investors' attention has moved from one major market theme to the next, spanning AI disruption and surging infrastructure investment to geopolitical tensions, interest rates, and the health of the broader economy. While some of the building products stocks have shown solid performance in this choppy environment, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 3.5% on average over the last month. Zurn Elkay is down 3.1% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $56.20 (compared to the current share price of $48.38). WHILE YOU’RE HERE: The Next Palantir? One satellite company captures images of every point on Earth. Every single day. The Pentagon wants it. Hedge funds are using it to beat earnings. You’ve probably never heard of it. This is what the early days of Palantir looked like before it became a giant. Same playbook. Different technology. If you missed Palantir, you need to see this. Claim The Stock Ticker for Free HERE.
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-07-23Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Declares Quarterly Cash Dividend
Business Wire
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Declares Quarterly Cash Dividend
MILWAUKEE, July 23, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (NYSE: ZWS) announced today that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly common stock dividend of $0.11 per share. The dividend is payable in cash on September 4, 2026 to stockholders of record as of August 20, 2026. About Zurn Elkay Water SolutionsNamed one of America’s Most Responsible Companies and one of America’s Greenest Companies by Newsweek and one of the World’s Best Companies for Sustainable Growth by TIME, Zurn Elkay Water Solutions is headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, and is a growth-oriented, pure-play water management business that designs, procures, manufactures and markets what we believe to be the broadest sustainable product portfolio of specification-driven water management solutions to improve health, hydration, human safety and the environment. The Zurn Elkay product portfolio includes professional grade water safety and control products, flow systems products, hygienic and environmental products and filtered drinking water products for public and private spaces. Learn more at www.zurnelkay.com. Forward-Looking StatementsInformation in this release may involve outlook, expectations, beliefs, plans, intentions, strategies or other statements regarding the future, which are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available to Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation as of the date of the release, and Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. The statements in this release are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results could differ materially from current expectations. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences. Please refer to "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in the Company’s Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2025 as well as the Company’s annual, quarterly and current reports filed on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K from time to time with the SEC for a further discussion of the factors and risks associated with the business. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260722439448/en/ Contacts Investor Contact:Bobbi Belstner, Vice President – C…Read full documentShow less
MILWAUKEE, July 23, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (NYSE: ZWS) announced today that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly common stock dividend of $0.11 per share. The dividend is payable in cash on September 4, 2026 to stockholders of record as of August 20, 2026. About Zurn Elkay Water SolutionsNamed one of America’s Most Responsible Companies and one of America’s Greenest Companies by Newsweek and one of the World’s Best Companies for Sustainable Growth by TIME, Zurn Elkay Water Solutions is headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, and is a growth-oriented, pure-play water management business that designs, procures, manufactures and markets what we believe to be the broadest sustainable product portfolio of specification-driven water management solutions to improve health, hydration, human safety and the environment. The Zurn Elkay product portfolio includes professional grade water safety and control products, flow systems products, hygienic and environmental products and filtered drinking water products for public and private spaces. Learn more at www.zurnelkay.com. Forward-Looking StatementsInformation in this release may involve outlook, expectations, beliefs, plans, intentions, strategies or other statements regarding the future, which are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available to Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation as of the date of the release, and Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. The statements in this release are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results could differ materially from current expectations. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences. Please refer to "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in the Company’s Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2025 as well as the Company’s annual, quarterly and current reports filed on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K from time to time with the SEC for a further discussion of the factors and risks associated with the business. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260722439448/en/ Contacts Investor Contact:Bobbi Belstner, Vice President – Corporate Controller414-361-0122 Media Contact:Angela Hersil, Vice President – Marketing and Communications855-480-5050414-808-0199Corporate.Communications@zurnelkay.com
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-07-15Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Schedules Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Release and Investor Conference Call
Business Wire
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Schedules Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Release and Investor Conference Call
MILWAUKEE, July 15, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation (NYSE: ZWS) will hold a conference call and webcast presentation on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, at 7:30 a.m. Central Time to discuss its second quarter 2026 financial results, provide a general business update and respond to investor questions. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Chairman and CEO, Todd Adams, CFO, Dan Klun, COO, Dave Pauli, and President, Jeff Schoon, will host the call and webcast. The Zurn Elkay earnings release for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026, will be released after market close on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. The July 29 investor conference call can be accessed as follows: Domestic toll-free #: 800-715-9871 International toll #: 646-307-1963 Access Code: 6071902 A live webcast of the call will also be available on the Company’s investor relations website. Please visit investors.zurnelkay.com at least fifteen minutes prior to the start of the call to register, download and install any necessary audio software. If you are unable to participate during the live teleconference, a replay of the conference call will be available as a webcast on the Company’s investor relations website. About Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Named one of the World’s Greenest Companies and one of America’s Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek and one of the World’s Best Companies for Sustainable Growth by TIME, Zurn Elkay Water Solutions is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is a growth-oriented, pure-play water management business that designs, procures, manufactures and markets what we believe to be the broadest sustainable product portfolio of specification-driven water management solutions to improve health, hydration, human safety and the environment. The Zurn Elkay product portfolio includes professional grade water safety and control products, flow systems products, hygienic and environmental products and filtered drinking water products for public and private spaces. Learn more at www.zurnelkay.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260709922576/en/ Contacts Zurn Elkay Water Solutions CorporationBobbi Belstner 414-361-0122Vice President, Corporate Controller
Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-07-13Q1 Earnings Highlights: Zurn Elkay (NYSE:ZWS) Vs The Rest Of The HVAC and Water Systems Stocks
StockStory
Q1 Earnings Highlights: Zurn Elkay (NYSE:ZWS) Vs The Rest Of The HVAC and Water Systems Stocks
Let’s dig into the relative performance of Zurn Elkay (NYSE:ZWS) and its peers as we unravel the now-completed Q1 HVAC and water systems earnings season. Many HVAC and water systems companies sell essential, non-discretionary infrastructure for buildings. Since the useful lives of these water heaters and vents are fairly standard, these companies have a portion of predictable replacement revenue. In the last decade, trends in energy efficiency and clean water are driving innovation that is leading to incremental demand. On the other hand, new installations for these companies are at the whim of residential and commercial construction volumes, which tend to be cyclical and can be impacted heavily by economic factors such as interest rates. The 9 HVAC and water systems stocks we track reported a very strong Q1. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 6.9%. Luckily, HVAC and water systems stocks have performed well with share prices up 11.5% on average since the latest earnings results. Claiming to have saved more than 30 billion gallons of water, Zurn Elkay (NYSE:ZWS) provides water management solutions to various industries. Zurn Elkay reported revenues of $433 million, up 11.4% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 3.2%. Overall, it was an exceptional quarter for the company with an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA and EPS estimates. Investor expectations, however, were likely higher than Wall Street’s published projections, leaving some wishing for even better results (analysts’ consensus estimates are those published by big banks and advisory firms, not the investors who make buy and sell decisions). The stock is down 1.2% since reporting and currently trades at $47.35. Is now the time to buy Zurn Elkay? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free. Backed by two million square feet of lab testing space, AAON (NASDAQ:AAON) makes heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment for different types of buildings. AAON reported revenues of $496.9 million, up 54.3% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 29.5%. The business had an incredible quarter with a beat of analysts’ EPS and EBITDA estimates. AAON scored the biggest analyst estimate beat and fastest revenue growth among its peers. The market seems happy with the results as the stock is up 17.3% since reporting. It currently…Read full documentShow less
Let’s dig into the relative performance of Zurn Elkay (NYSE:ZWS) and its peers as we unravel the now-completed Q1 HVAC and water systems earnings season. Many HVAC and water systems companies sell essential, non-discretionary infrastructure for buildings. Since the useful lives of these water heaters and vents are fairly standard, these companies have a portion of predictable replacement revenue. In the last decade, trends in energy efficiency and clean water are driving innovation that is leading to incremental demand. On the other hand, new installations for these companies are at the whim of residential and commercial construction volumes, which tend to be cyclical and can be impacted heavily by economic factors such as interest rates. The 9 HVAC and water systems stocks we track reported a very strong Q1. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 6.9%. Luckily, HVAC and water systems stocks have performed well with share prices up 11.5% on average since the latest earnings results. Claiming to have saved more than 30 billion gallons of water, Zurn Elkay (NYSE:ZWS) provides water management solutions to various industries. Zurn Elkay reported revenues of $433 million, up 11.4% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 3.2%. Overall, it was an exceptional quarter for the company with an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA and EPS estimates. Investor expectations, however, were likely higher than Wall Street’s published projections, leaving some wishing for even better results (analysts’ consensus estimates are those published by big banks and advisory firms, not the investors who make buy and sell decisions). The stock is down 1.2% since reporting and currently trades at $47.35. Is now the time to buy Zurn Elkay? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free. Backed by two million square feet of lab testing space, AAON (NASDAQ:AAON) makes heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment for different types of buildings. AAON reported revenues of $496.9 million, up 54.3% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 29.5%. The business had an incredible quarter with a beat of analysts’ EPS and EBITDA estimates. AAON scored the biggest analyst estimate beat and fastest revenue growth among its peers. The market seems happy with the results as the stock is up 17.3% since reporting. It currently trades at $115.30. Is now the time to buy AAON? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free. Credited with the invention of the glass-lined water heater, A.O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) manufactures water heating and treatment products for various industries. A. O. Smith reported revenues of $945.6 million, down 1.9% year on year, falling short of analysts’ expectations by 3.5%. It was a softer quarter as it posted full-year EPS guidance missing analysts’ expectations and a significant miss of analysts’ EPS estimates. A. O. Smith delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates, slowest revenue growth, and weakest full-year guidance update in the group. As expected, the stock is down 5.1% since the results and currently trades at $60.44. Read our full analysis of A. O. Smith’s results here. Originally started as a farm water drainage company, Advanced Drainage Systems (NYSE:WMS) provides clean water management solutions to communities across America. Advanced Drainage reported revenues of $676.8 million, up 9.9% year on year. This number beat analysts’ expectations by 3.8%. Overall, it was a strong quarter as it also produced a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates. Advanced Drainage delivered the highest full-year guidance raise among its peers. The stock is up 10% since reporting and currently trades at $150.49. Read our full, actionable report on Advanced Drainage here, it’s free. Playing a large role in the Integrated Pipeline (IPL) project in Texas to deliver ~350 million gallons of water per day, Northwest Pipe (NASDAQ:NWPX) is a manufacturer of pipeline systems for water infrastructure. Northwest Pipe reported revenues of $138.3 million, up 19.1% year on year. This result surpassed analysts’ expectations by 10.5%. Overall, it was an incredible quarter as it also recorded a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates. The stock is up 55.7% since reporting and currently trades at $133.90. Read our full, actionable report on Northwest Pipe here, it’s free. Want to invest in winners with rock-solid fundamentals? Check out our Top 5 Growth Stocks and add them to your watchlist. These companies are poised for growth regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate.

