Head to Head Survey: Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor (NYSE:ZWS) vs. Pentair (NYSE:PNR)

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) and Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor (NYSE:ZWS) are both business services companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.4% of Pentair shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.3% of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Pentair shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Pentair has a beta of 1.25, meaning that its share price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor has a beta of 1.07, meaning that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Pentair and Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pentair	$4.18 billion	3.53	$653.80 million	$3.96	23.01
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor	$1.70 billion	4.73	$198.00 million	$1.15	41.62

Pentair has higher revenue and earnings than Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor. Pentair is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Pentair and Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pentair	3	3	10	0	2.44
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor	0	4	4	0	2.50

Pentair currently has a consensus target price of $111.87, indicating a potential upside of 22.75%. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor has a consensus target price of $54.00, indicating a potential upside of 12.82%. Given Pentair’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Pentair is more favorable than Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor.

Profitability

This table compares Pentair and Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pentair	15.66%	21.79%	12.14%
Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor	11.68%	16.54%	9.82%

Dividends

Pentair pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Pentair pays out 27.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor pays out 38.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Pentair has raised its dividend for 7 consecutive years and Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Pentair is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Pentair beats Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pentair

Pentair plc provides various water solutions in the United States, Western Europe, China, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia, Canada, and Japan. The company operates through three segments: Flow, Water Solutions, and Pool. The Flow segment designs, manufactures, and sells fluid treatment and pump products and systems, including pressure vessels, gas recovery solutions, membrane bioreactors, wastewater reuse systems and advanced membrane filtration, separation systems, water disposal pumps, water supply pumps, fluid transfer pumps, turbine pumps, solid handling pumps, and agricultural spray nozzles for fluid delivery, ion exchange, desalination, food and beverage, separation technologies in the oil and gas industry, residential and municipal wells, water treatment, wastewater solids handling, pressure boosting, circulation and transfer, fire suppression, flood control, agricultural irrigation, and crop spray in residential, commercial, and industrial markets. The Water Solutions segment provides commercial and residential water treatment products and systems, including pressure tanks, control valves, activated carbon products, commercial ice machines, conventional filtration products, and point-of-entry and point-of-use water treatment systems, as well as installation and preventative services for use in residential whole home water filtration, drinking water filtration, and water softening solutions, as well as commercial total water management and filtration in foodservice operations. The Pool segment provides residential and commercial pool equipment and accessories comprising pumps, filters, heaters, lights, automatic controls, automatic cleaners, maintenance equipment, and pool accessories for applications in residential and commercial pool maintenance, pool repair, renovation, service, and construction and aquaculture solutions. Pentair plc was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

About Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Cor

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation engages in design, procurement, manufacture, and marketing of water management solutions in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It offers water safety and control products, such as backflow preventers, fire system valves, pressure reducing valves, thermostatic mixing valves, PEX pipings, fittings, and installation tools under the Zurn and Wilkins brand names. The company also provides flow systems products comprising point drains, hydrants, fixture carrier systems, chemical drainage systems; and interceptors and separators, acid neutralization systems, and remote monitoring systems under the Zurn and Green Turtle brands. In addition, it develops, manufactures, and markets remote tank monitoring devices, alarms, software, and services. Further, the company offers sensor-operated flush valves under the AquaSense, Aquaflush, and AquaVantage brands; heavy-duty commercial faucets under the AquaSpec brand; water conserving fixtures under the EcoVantage and Zurn One brands; stainless steel products under the Just Manufacturing brand name, which include stainless steel sinks and plumbing fixtures, and various types of sinks, as well as drinking water dispensing and filtration products under the Elkay and Halsey Taylor brands. It distributes to institutional, commercial, waterworks, and residential end markets through independent sales representatives, plumbing wholesalers, and industry-specific distributors in the waterworks, foodservice, industrial, janitorial, sanitation, and sitework industries. The company was formerly known as Zurn Water Solutions Corporation and changed its name to Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation in July 2022. Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation was incorporated in 1892 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.