William Blair analyst Ryan Merkel has maintained their bullish stance on SWIM stock, giving a Buy rating today.
Meet Samuel – Your Personal Investing Prophet
- Start a conversation with TipRanks’ trusted, data-backed investment intelligence
- Ask Samuel about stocks, your portfolio, or the market and get instant, personalized insights in seconds
Ryan Merkel has given his Buy rating due to a combination of factors that highlight Latham Group’s improving fundamentals and attractive valuation. He points to the company’s strong fourth-quarter performance and a 2026 outlook that exceeds prior expectations, driven by favorable weather, solid execution in key “sand states” like Florida, and the new CEO’s willingness to refine the go-to-market approach with contractors and homebuilders.
Merkel also emphasizes that fiberglass pools remain a powerful growth engine, with ongoing conversion in core regions and margin gains supported by value engineering, lean manufacturing, and operating leverage on higher volumes. Although overall new pool construction remains subdued, he views Latham’s ability to deliver above-market growth, expanding gross margins, and an EBITDA multiple below peers as justification for multiple expansion and about 16% upside to his price target, supporting his Outperform recommendation.
According to TipRanks, Merkel is a 4-star analyst with an average return of 6.2% and a 54.75% success rate. Merkel covers the Industrials sector, focusing on stocks such as QXO Inc, Aaon, and Fastenal Company.
In another report released today, Craig-Hallum also assigned a Buy rating to the stock with a $13.00 price target.