Xylem
XYL on NYSE. Xylem sells pumps, meters, treatment systems and services to water utilities and industry. Market value $23.9bn.
Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.
Should I look at this?
Worth a closer look
Why it could be worth it
What to watch out for
Nothing stood out in the numbers we check.
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $4.01 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 19.4 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 8 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 85 of 100. Price score: 65 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$102.42 a share, 4% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $98.58 to $154.27.
Dividend: 1.6% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Payouts have jumped around in recent years, so this may not repeat.
Prices from Monday’s close (5 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $5.2bn | $5.5bn | $7.4bn | $8.6bn | $9.0bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 11.3% | 11.3% | 8.9% | 11.8% | 13.5% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 0.76 | 0.54 | 0.22 | 0.20 | 0.23 |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.18bn | 0.24bn | 0.24bn | 0.24bn | 0.23bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
- Financial strength (Piotroski)5 of 9
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- Debt0.23× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsStrong, 13.1% a year
- Buying back its own sharesNo, 30% more shares since 2021
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $2.3 billion last quarter, about the same as a year ago.
- Profit: $263 million, up 16% on a year ago.
- It keeps 14 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 12 cents a year earlier.
- Spare cash over the past 12 months: $960 million, up from $881 million.
- 3% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
- Debt is $1.6 billion more than cash, up from $826 million a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $2.1bn |
| December 2024 | $2.3bn |
| March 2025 | $2.1bn |
| June 2025 | $2.3bn |
| September 2025 | $2.3bn |
| December 2025 | $2.4bn |
| March 2026 | $2.1bn |
| June 2026 | $2.3bn |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $217m |
| December 2024 | $326m |
| March 2025 | $169m |
| June 2025 | $226m |
| September 2025 | $227m |
| December 2025 | $335m |
| March 2026 | $193m |
| June 2026 | $263m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- 27 October 2026
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 25 February 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 27 October 2026
Who owns it
7 long-term investors we follow own it, up from 6 last quarter. 1,096 funds in all.
- GAMCO InvestorsMario Gabelli
- Value
- $38m
- Share of fund
- 0.3%
- First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners
- Value
- $3m
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $54m | 0.1% | Added |
| GAMCO InvestorsMario Gabelli | $38m | 0.3% | |
| First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners | $3m | <0.1% | |
| Mairs & PowerAndy Adams | $2m | <0.1% | Added |
| Nuance InvestmentsScott Moore | $2m | 0.3% | New |
| Aristotle Capital ManagementHoward Gleicher | $1m | <0.1% | Cut |
| Cullen Capital ManagementJames Cullen | $965,421 | <0.1% | Cut |
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$3.0bnCut
- Vanguard Capital Management$1.8bn
- Vanguard Portfolio Management$1.5bn
- State Street$1.4bnAdded
- Geode Capital Management$747m
- Amundi$604mCut
- Invesco$603mAdded
- Bank of New York Mellon$552mAdded
- Royal Bank of Canada$544mCut
- Impax Asset Management Group$528mCut
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
2 investors own more than 5%.
- Vanguard Capital ManagementPassive investor7.5%Since 31 March 2026
- Vanguard Portfolio ManagementPassive investor5.3%Since 31 March 2026
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
Vanguard Capital Management Passive investor | 7.5% | 31 March 2026 | |
Vanguard Portfolio Management Passive investor | 5.3% | 31 March 2026 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 13 March 2026 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
In the last 12 months, 1 insider bought $141,098 of shares on the open market. 3 sold $2m.
- McShane Geri-MichelleSVP, CAOSold
- Date
- 7 May 2026
- Shares
- 4,269
- Price
- $117.46
- Value
- $501,437
- Peribere Jerome ADirectorBought
- Date
- 4 May 2026
- Shares
- 1,210
- Price
- $116.61
- Value
- $141,098
- Harker Victoria DDirectorSold
- Date
- 4 November 2025
- Shares
- 1,700
- Price
- $148.14
- Value
- $251,838
- Toussaint Claudia SEVP, CPSOSold
- Date
- 30 October 2025
- Shares
- 10,421
- Price
- $152.64
- Value
- $2m
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 May 2026 | McShane Geri-Michelle SVP, CAO | Sold | 4,269 | $117.46 | $501,437 |
| 4 May 2026 | Peribere Jerome A Director | Bought | 1,210 | $116.61 | $141,098 |
| 4 November 2025 | Harker Victoria D Director | Sold | 1,700 | $148.14 | $251,838 |
| 30 October 2025 | Toussaint Claudia S EVP, CPSO | Sold | 10,421 | $152.64 | $2m |
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 25 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 28 Jul 2026 and 8 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
What changed in the risks this year
Companies must list what could hurt them each year. These are the parts that changed since last year’s report.
Geopolitical, regulatory, economic, foreign exchange and other risks associated with our global sales, supply chain and operations may adversely affect our business.
Could happenGeopolitical changes in China-Taiwan relations could disrupt the operations of companies in Taiwan that are critical to the global supply chain for semiconductors (“chips”) and other electronic components, as well as the supply of lithium batteries, carbide seals, and rare earth elements. Such changes could have significant negative effects on the global supply chain for these components and materials and could adversely affect our ability to manufacture certain of our digitally-enabled products, such as pumps, controllers and smart meters.
Read more
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.