New York, February 13, 2026, 10:11 EST — Regular session
- Watts Water Technologies slipped roughly 1% early Friday.
- Shares climbed roughly 6.8% Thursday following the company’s latest quarterly report, ending the session at $336.18.
- Watts is projecting reported net sales to climb between 8% and 12% in 2026.
Watts Water Technologies Inc (NYSE:WTS) shares slipped around 1% on Friday, giving up a bit of ground following Thursday’s strong earnings-fueled jump. Early in New York, the stock traded at $332.76, down 1.0%.
The pullback comes after shares surged about 6% on Thursday, with Watts topping Wall Street’s profit and revenue forecasts, according to MarketBeat. Traders booked profits, shifting their focus away from the earnings beat toward questions about the company’s next steps.
Robert J. Pagano Jr., the chief executive, described both the quarter and the year as “record.” He noted Watts is keeping an eye on “geopolitical uncertainty” and uneven conditions across global markets. The company’s plumbing, heating, and water-quality products go into new builds as well as repairs, so shifts in pricing and volume could matter for 2026. Business Wire
Watts reported late Wednesday that fourth-quarter sales increased 16% to $625 million. Adjusted earnings jumped 28% to $2.62 per share. Operating margin hit 18.2%, an improvement of 170 basis points, or 1.70 percentage points.
The company put 2025 sales at $2.44 billion, with free cash flow coming in at $356 million. For 2026, management is targeting reported sales growth in the 8% to 12% range and an operating margin between 18.8% and 19.4%. As of the latest filing, roughly $129 million was still left on its share buyback plan from 2023.
CFO Diane M. McClintock, speaking on the earnings call, highlighted both pricing and productivity improvements, and singled out data-center demand as a key factor in the Americas. Pagano, for his part, laid out moves to cut back on lower-margin offerings as part of the company’s “80/20” strategy—an effort to channel resources toward the highest-return product lines. The Motley Fool
KeyBanc’s Jeffrey Hammond bumped his target on Watts up to $360 from $340, sticking with his Overweight call, GuruFocus reported.
Still, there’s obvious tension in the forecast. “This guidance assumes no changes to the current tariff environment,” McClintock said. She’s looking at Europe, where organic sales might slip as much as 4%, or just hold steady. Pagano, for his part, sees a “soft single family and multifamily residential construction market through 2026.” Insider Monkey
Investors are watching to see if prices stick—and whether the impact from product exits in Europe ends up worse than anticipated. Watts is scheduled to release its next earnings report on May 5, per Investing.com’s calendar.
