Mueller Water Products Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Record third-quarter results included net sales of $395.9 million, adjusted EBITDA of $107.4 million, and adjusted EPS of $0.50. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 440 basis points year over year to 27.1%, driven by pricing, operational improvements, tariff refunds, and cost control.
  • Positive Sentiment: Management raised fiscal 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance for the third consecutive quarter to $367 million–$372 million and expects full-year free-cash-flow conversion above 70% of adjusted net income. Net sales guidance was narrowed to 2.8%–3.5% growth as the company anticipates softer residential construction in the fourth quarter.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Segment performance was mixed: WMS sales rose 10.3% with strong hydrant and natural-gas distribution volumes, while WFS sales declined 0.6% as lower iron gate valve and service brass volumes offset specialty-valve growth. WMS expects lower fourth-quarter margins as its hydrant backlog normalizes and residential weakness increases.
  • Positive Sentiment: Specialty valves remain the company’s fastest-growing category, supported by project-related demand and expansion into industrial water applications, including data centers. Mueller is also seeing positive customer feedback from trials of its Hydrant Renewal solution, which replaces below-ground hydrant components without excavation.
  • Negative Sentiment: Tariff and inflation pressures remain elevated, and management expects no further tariff refunds after the third quarter. Fourth-quarter pricing growth will also moderate as the company laps tariff-related price increases implemented last year.
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Earnings Conference Call
Mueller Water Products Q3 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good morning. Thank you for standing by. Your lines are on a listen-only mode until the question-and-answer session of today's conference. At that time, you may press star, followed by number one to ask a question. Please unmute your phone and state your name when prompted. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Whit Kincaid.

Whit Kincaid
Whit Kincaid
VP of Investor Relations and Communications at Mueller Water Products

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Mueller Water Products' third quarter conference call. Yesterday afternoon, we issued our press release reporting results of operations for the quarter ended June 30th, 2026. A copy of the press release is available on our website, muellerwaterproducts.com. I am joined this morning by Paul McAndrew, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Melissa Rasmussen, our Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared remarks, we will address questions related to the information covered on the call. As a reminder, please keep the one question and a follow-up, then return to the queue. This morning's call is being recorded and webcast live on the Internet. We have also posted slides on our website to accompany today's discussion. They also address forward-looking statements and our non-GAAP disclosure requirements. At this time, please refer to slide two.

Whit Kincaid
Whit Kincaid
VP of Investor Relations and Communications at Mueller Water Products

This slide identifies non-GAAP financial measures referenced in our press release, on our slides, and on this call. It discloses the reasons why we believe these measures provide useful information to investors. Reconciliations between non-GAAP and GAAP financial measures are included in the supplemental information within our press release and on our website. Slide three addresses forward-looking statements made on this call. This slide includes cautionary information identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in forward-looking statements. Please review Slides two and three in their entirety. During this call, all references to a specific year or quarter, unless specified otherwise, refer to our fiscal year, which ends the 30th of September. A replay of this morning's call will be available for 30 days at 1-866-386-1299.

Whit Kincaid
Whit Kincaid
VP of Investor Relations and Communications at Mueller Water Products

The archive webcast and corresponding slides will be available for at least 90 days on the investor relations section of our website. I'll now turn the call over to Paul.

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

Thanks, Whit. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our third quarter earnings call. Our outstanding third quarter results reflect strong execution and continued progress against the operating priorities we outlined in the last quarter. We achieved quarterly records for net sales, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted net income per diluted share. Net sales grew 4.1% in the quarter, supported by commercial execution, resilient municipal end market demand, and strong growth in project-related specialty valves. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 440 basis points year-over-year, reflecting our continued focus on operational excellence, productivity, and disciplined cost management. Free cash flow was strong this quarter, enabling us to continue funding capacity and efficiency investments while returning approximately $21 million to shareholders through our quarterly dividend and share repurchases. I am proud of what our teams have accomplished and the continued commitment to serving our customers.

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

Last quarter, we introduced the Mueller Operating System as the framework we are using to drive greater discipline, execution, and accountability across the company. Our results provide further evidence of the progress we are making in expanding margins, strengthening cash generation, and investing in growth and simplification. Following our announcement last quarter, we completed the exit of the i2O pipe manufacturing business outside of North America. We also completed the facility migration of small modular technology company, AirCore Systems, to a simpler set of facilities in electrical work. This quarter, we incurred one-time costs associated with this transaction. A lower tax, which lowered our income tax. We expect cost savings and tax benefits to support margin expansion and enhance free cash flow.

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

For increased fiscal 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance, we remain on track to deliver another year of meaningful margin expansion while we continue to navigate slower new residential construction activity and broader external uncertainty. We remain focused on what we can control: executing our strategies, investing in growth, and proactively managing costs. Our commercial initiatives are focused on increasing market penetration for our leading products and expanding into adjacent markets for our specialty valves. We believe a disciplined execution embedded in the Mueller Operating System positions us well to build on this momentum and create long-term value for our customers and shareholders. I am proud of the progress our teams have achieved this year, reflecting a focus on serving customers, strengthening operations, and collaborating across the organization.

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

We recently published our 2025 sustainability report, highlighting our continued progress in advancing environmental stewardship, operational excellence, responsible business practices, employee well-being, and community impact. As cities and municipalities confront a growing range of challenges, critical infrastructure is under increasing strain. At the same time, aging systems continue to pose significant risks. Against this backdrop, Mueller's role as a provider of resilient, reliable water infrastructure solutions is more essential than ever. Notable 2025 achievements include reaching an outstanding milestone of the lowest total recordable incident rate in our history, reflective of our team's unwavering commitment to safety. We've also maintained strong momentum towards reducing our carbon footprint, cutting scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity by 13% year-over-year, bringing our total reduction to 35%. This moves us closer to our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 50% by 2035.

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

As for employee engagement, we reached our goal one year ahead of our schedule, achieving an 80% employee engagement score in our annual employee survey. Our vision is to be the leader in water infrastructure solutions, solving challenges, enriching lives, and safeguarding the future. We will continue to drive progress through our innovative products and solutions that help utilities and municipalities strengthen system resilience, detect leaks faster and with greater precision, rehabilitate and maintain aging infrastructure, and provide life-saving fire protection. Our achievements of the past several years establish a new foundation for future progress and are the direct result of the hard work, focus, and collaboration demonstrated across our organization. With that, I'll turn it over to Melissa to take us through the financials.

Melissa Rasmussen
Melissa Rasmussen
CFO at Mueller Water Products

Thanks, Paul, good morning, everyone. We are pleased to deliver another record quarter, demonstrating the strength of our business, the resilience of our end markets, and the continued execution by our teams despite a dynamic external environment. Consolidated net sales increased 4.1% to a new record of $395.9 million, driven primarily by higher pricing across most product lines, partially offset by slightly lower volumes. Gross profit increased 6.9% to a record $155.8 million, with gross margin expanding 110 basis points to 39.4%. The improvement reflects the benefits of pricing actions and tariff refunds, which more than offset inflationary pressures, performance, volume impacts, portfolio optimization costs, and product mix. During the quarter, we incurred $3.1 million of portfolio optimization costs associated with the strategic exit of the i2O pressure monitoring business outside of North America, impacting WMS cost of sales.

Melissa Rasmussen
Melissa Rasmussen
CFO at Mueller Water Products

While we continue to experience elevated tariff costs, mainly attributable to Section 232 tariffs, along with ongoing inflationary pressures, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariff refunds received during the quarter helped offset a portion of those impacts. Excluding the impact of these prior period tariff refunds and the portfolio optimization costs, adjusted gross margin was approximately 30 basis points higher than the prior year's gross margin of 38.3%, demonstrating the underlying benefit of our pricing actions and operational execution despite a challenging cost environment. Total SG&A expenses for the quarter of $64 million decreased $7 million year-over-year, reflecting reduced foreign currency headwinds and lower incentive compensation expense, partially offset by continued inflationary pressures. This performance underscores our disciplined approach to cost management while continuing to invest in the business. We incurred $11.2 million of strategic reorganization and other charges.

Melissa Rasmussen
Melissa Rasmussen
CFO at Mueller Water Products

These costs primarily relate to the i2O exit, including non-cash asset impairment charges, certain transaction-related expenses, severance, and costs associated with our leadership transition. Our adjusted results do not include strategic reorganization and other charges or the portfolio optimization costs reflected in the WMS segment. Adjusted EBITDA reached a record of $107.4 million, an increase of 24.3% compared to the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 440 basis points year-over-year to a record 27.1%. This strong performance was primarily driven by pricing actions, tariff refunds, and favorable SG&A cost management, which more than offset inflationary pressures, performance, volume impacts, and product mix. On a trailing 12-month basis, adjusted EBITDA improved to $369 million, or 24.9% of net sales, representing an improvement of 290 basis points versus the prior 12-month period.

Melissa Rasmussen
Melissa Rasmussen
CFO at Mueller Water Products

Adjusted net income per diluted share increased 47.1% year-over-year to a record $0.50 per share. During the quarter, we benefited from lower net interest expense driven by higher interest income. Our third quarter effective income tax rate was 15.7%, compared with 27.1% in the prior year quarter, reflecting a one-time tax benefit associated with the exit of the i2O business. This benefit contributed approximately $0.06 per diluted share during the quarter. Turning now to segment performance, starting with WFS. Net sales were $215.3 million, declining 0.6% year-over-year, as higher pricing across most product lines and volume growth in specialty valves largely offset lower iron gate valve and service brass volumes. Adjusted EBITDA increased 9.5% to a record $73.5 million.

Melissa Rasmussen
Melissa Rasmussen
CFO at Mueller Water Products

Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 310 basis points to a record 34.1%, compared to 31% in the prior year period, reflecting the benefits of pricing, tariff refunds, and performance, which more than offset lower volumes, inflationary pressures, and product mix. Moving to WMS. Net sales increased 10.3% to $180.6 million, driven by strong volume growth in hydrants and natural gas distribution products, along with higher pricing across most product lines. Adjusted EBITDA increased 43.6% to a record $50.7 million, reflecting benefits from higher pricing, lower SG&A expenses, including reduced foreign currency headwinds, volume growth, and tariff refunds, which more than offset performance and inflationary pressures. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 650 basis points to a record 28.1%, compared with 21.6% in the prior year period. The continued improvement in profitability reflects the significant progress we have made in strengthening operating performance and driving leverage across the business. Turning to free cash flow.

Melissa Rasmussen
Melissa Rasmussen
CFO at Mueller Water Products

For the first nine months of the year, free cash flow increased $7.6 million to $110.6 million and represented 59% of adjusted net income. The increase was driven by higher net cash provided by operating activities, partially offset by higher capital expenditures. Net cash provided by operating activities increased $18.4 million year-over-year, driven primarily by favorable non-cash adjustments and higher net income, partially offset by changes in working capital and other assets and liabilities. While working capital remains elevated due to inventory investments, inflation, and tariffs, these investments continue to support customer service levels and our long-term growth objectives. We invested $43.6 million in capital expenditures during the first nine months of the year, compared with $32.8 million in the prior year period, reflecting continued investments in our iron foundries that support future productivity, capacity, and operational excellence.

Melissa Rasmussen
Melissa Rasmussen
CFO at Mueller Water Products

We ended the quarter with $495 million of cash and cash equivalents and $453 million of total debt. Our balance sheet remains exceptionally strong, providing significant flexibility to support both organic investments and strategic growth opportunities. We have no debt maturities until June 2029 and $450 million of senior notes at a favorable 4% fixed interest rate and had no borrowings under our ABL facility. We ended the quarter with total liquidity of $659 million, including $164 million of available capacity under the ABL, positioning us well to execute our strategic priorities and pursue attractive acquisition opportunities. Turning now to our outlook for fiscal 2026. Given our strong year-to-date performance and outlook for the balance of the year, we are narrowing our consolidated net sales growth guidance to a range of 2.8%-3.5% year-over-year, reflecting our current expectations for end market demand, volumes, and price realization.

Melissa Rasmussen
Melissa Rasmussen
CFO at Mueller Water Products

While we anticipate softer new residential construction activity during the fourth quarter, we continue to expect resilient municipal repair and replacement activity and strong growth in specialty valves. Based on our record performance through the first nine months of the year and confidence in our ability to execute for the rest of the year, we are raising our annual adjusted EBITDA guidance to a new range of $367 million-$372 million. At the midpoint, our updated guidance range represents an adjusted EBITDA margin of 25.1%, which would represent another annual record for the company. We are also reducing our expectations for total SGA expenses within this updated guidance to a new range of $241 million-$245 million, reflecting ongoing discipline in managing costs while supporting strategic growth initiatives.

Melissa Rasmussen
Melissa Rasmussen
CFO at Mueller Water Products

Additionally, we are lowering our effective tax rate guidance to between 21% and 23%, reflecting the one-time tax benefit recognized during the third quarter. Finally, we are reaffirming our capital expenditure outlook of $60 million-$65 million and continue to expect our free cash flow conversion to exceed 70% of adjusted net income for the full year. Overall, our performance year to date demonstrates the strength of our business model, the resilience of our end markets and the effectiveness of our pricing, operational and cost management initiatives. We remain confident in our ability to deliver another record year while continuing to invest for long-term growth and value creation. With that, I'll turn it back to Paul for closing comments.

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

Thanks, Melissa. I want to provide a few closing comments before opening it up for Q&A. Overall, I am extremely proud of our team's outstanding performance this quarter. I'm pleased for the third consecutive quarter, we are raising our annual adjusted EBITDA guidance. We delivered strong results in an uncertain operating environment by staying focused on serving customers, executing with discipline, and investing in capabilities that support long-term value creation. Our priorities remain clear: drive above-market sales growth, continued expanding margins, and maintain disciplined capital allocation. The Mueller Operating System is the execution engine behind those priorities, providing the tools, processes, and management disciplines to improve execution, accountability, and continuous improvement across the company. This quarter provides further evidence that the system is taking hold. At the center of our success are our employees.

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

Their commitment, collaboration, and safety-first mindset enable us to serve customers well, strengthen operations, and sustain our momentum. Through the disciplined execution embedded in the Mueller Operating System, we will continue to reduce complexity, improve business processes, expand margins, and generate cash to fund growth investments, including capacity, efficiency, digital tools, innovation, and specialty valve capabilities. Finally, we will remain disciplined in allocating capital across organic investments, targeted acquisitions, and cash return to shareholders. Mueller is becoming a stronger, more focused, and more resilient company, and we remain committed to creating sustainable long-term value for our shareholders. I want to thank our employees worldwide for their extraordinary commitment to our customers and communities. They are the reason for our success and why Mueller has been a trusted partner for more than one century. That concludes our comments. Operator, please open the line up for questions.

Operator

Thank you, sir. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, you may press star one. Please unmute your phones and state your first and last name when prompted. To withdraw your question, you may press star two. One moment, please. Bryan Blair with Oppenheimer, your line is open, sir.

Bryan Blair
Bryan Blair
Analyst at Oppenheimer

Thank you. Morning, everyone.

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

Morning, Bryan.

Melissa Rasmussen
Melissa Rasmussen
CFO at Mueller Water Products

Morning.

Bryan Blair
Bryan Blair
Analyst at Oppenheimer

Updated guidance implies top line down slightly year-over-year against a pretty healthy stacked comp and I think about 1% EBITDA growth again against solid Q4 2025 performance. How should we think about segment contribution to that? The year has progressed a little differently than we expected, still very strong overall. I'm just curious how we should think about the Q4 dynamics by segment.

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

Yeah, I'll give the overall first, Bryan, and then I'll let Melissa talk by segment. You are correct. We narrowed our net sales range. I guess that's based on our current expectations around orders and shipments, mainly around the slower residential construction activity. We'd also lap in tariff price actions from Q4 implementation of last year. Again, though, we overall, really pleased where we are as a company, Bryan. Pleased to be growing net sales and expanding margins for the third consecutive year. It's really where we are reflective of where we see the slower residential construction and the uncertainty in macro environments as we move into Q4. As to segments, I'll pass over to Melissa.

Melissa Rasmussen
Melissa Rasmussen
CFO at Mueller Water Products

Sure. Good morning, Bryan. For the WFS segment, we are expecting adjusted EBITDA to be above prior year due to gross margin improvements, operational efficiencies, and then price realization. We're expecting to see a sequential decline from third to fourth quarter, which part of that is due to the typical seasonality decline sequentially, and we expect volumes and product mix to be a driver of that as well. Volume will be impacting our short cycle product, so iron gate valves and service brass, and we'll expect to see a shift toward specialty valves because we have continued to see strength in specialty valves throughout the year. For WMS, we're expecting to see lower margins versus the prior year and sequentially, and that's going to be due to lower hydrant volume. We have benefited from a backlog in hydrants throughout the first three quarters.

Melissa Rasmussen
Melissa Rasmussen
CFO at Mueller Water Products

We expect that that backlog will be normalized as we enter fourth quarter. The residential slowdown will impact WMS more than it has so far this year. We do expect to see that we'll be lapping our tariff pricing that was put in place and began to benefit the fourth quarter of last year, and we'll continue to see higher inflationary pressures and ongoing tariff expense. While we have had the relief from the IEEPA tariffs, that has been replaced by higher Section 232 tariffs impacting our Krausz business line. We do not expect to have any further tariff refunds.

Bryan Blair
Bryan Blair
Analyst at Oppenheimer

Okay. Very helpful detail. Thank you. You mentioned tariff refunds there. I think you gave us the math that we can back into consolidated benefit for fiscal Q3. What were tariff refunds on a segment level?

Melissa Rasmussen
Melissa Rasmussen
CFO at Mueller Water Products

Yes. As I mentioned in the prepared remarks, we had 150 basis point benefit overall for the tariff refunds in the quarter. For the segments, that split about 50/50. You would see 140 basis point impact in WFS and 170 basis point impact in WMS.

Bryan Blair
Bryan Blair
Analyst at Oppenheimer

Understood. Thank you again.

Operator

Thank you. Our next caller is Walt Liptak from Seaport Research. Your line is open, sir.

Walt Liptak
Walt Liptak
Analyst at Seaport Research

Hi. Thanks. Thanks for the guidance for fourth quarter. I wanted to ask about the specialty valves. You called those out a couple of times because of projects, and it sounds like the demand was strong. I wonder if you could provide some more detail about the demand levels in the third quarter and what the visibility's like in the fourth quarter.

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

Yeah, sure, Walt. Good morning. Specialty valve is slightly different in terms of how the sales cycle in comparison to our short cycle business. Specialty valve makes up the majority of our backlog then. It's been the fastest growing category for us over the past few years, and we are really leveraging our operational investments and the consolidation of locations into Kimball, along with our engineering investments. I think you know there's many different types of valves within a specialty valve then that impact not just potable water, but wastewater and industrial water. Industrial water, although a small category for us, has been one of our fastest growing categories.

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

As we kind of not just think about the potable water or the infrastructure water around data centers, we're also seeing a stepped increase then of our ability to get the specialty valves into industrial water for data centers as well.

Walt Liptak
Walt Liptak
Analyst at Seaport Research

Okay, great. I wonder, the data center opportunity, are these being sold through distribution or are you getting specced into the data centers?

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

It's a combination. We sell through distribution. We've also made commercial investments in our teams to gain access for approved manufacturing list as well. It's one of our commercial initiatives going forward, we're starting to see traction right now.

Walt Liptak
Walt Liptak
Analyst at Seaport Research

Okay. Thanks very much.

Operator

Thank you. Our next caller is Jeffrey with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open, sir.

Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Thanks. Good morning. Maybe just following up on that data center question, could you size how big that business is for you today?

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

It's relatively small in the overall size of the business for us, Jeff. Industrial water within specialty valves is a piece of that where we are seeing probably our fastest growth, and it is one of our highest commercial initiatives then to really work with these engineering firms around the AML. In terms of size right now, relatively small.

Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Got it. Appreciate that. Maybe just a higher level question, I mean repair and replacement market seems to be resilient, but I think some federal stimulus seems to be sunsetting. As you look over the next year or two, how much visibility do you have into the spending outlook?

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

You think about the federal sunset and federal investment is less than 5% of the total investment into municipalities, the rest coming from state and local governments. I know we are seeing the sunset, and it's going to take multiple years to see that impact because a lot of those funds have already been appropriated then, and they just need to be executed into projects. Over the next one to three years, we don't see any meaningful change then from the federal funding impact.

Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Got it. Maybe if I could just sneak in one more. I think at ACE this year, you guys are showcasing your Hydrant Renewal Solution. I think it's a really great opportunity. Can you just update us on where the commercialization stands today, any early customer feedback, and how you're thinking about revenue contribution as this scales?

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

We have launched Hydrant Renewal. We continue to get very positive customer feedback from customer trials. Just as a reminder for everyone, this will be replacing aged hydrants without having to dig up the part of the hydrant which is below the ground. It gives a much more efficient solution for our customers. We're also pleased how much positive feedback we've had, Jeff, on the leak testing capabilities integrated into that solution as well.

Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Great. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. Again, if anyone would like to ask a question, please press star one. Our next caller is Brian Lee with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open, sir.

Keshav Choudhary
Keshav Choudhary
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Hey, guys, this is Keshav Choudhary on for Brian Lee. Thank you for taking my question. Pricing has been a contributor for your growth in recent quarters. Can you maybe discuss the sustainability of the pricing realization going forward, particularly as the tariff-related price increases began to lap up in the second half, and whether you're seeing any change in sort of customer acceptance as these increases work through the market? Thank you.

Melissa Rasmussen
Melissa Rasmussen
CFO at Mueller Water Products

Good morning. We have historically been successful at taking pricing actions to offset inflationary impacts. We have typically ranged in the mid and low single-digit range of price realization. We continue to expect to see that opportunity into the future. We have been price-cost positive and continue to expect that that will be the same as we move into fourth quarter. With the price realization, we will expect to see a little bit lower price realization in fourth quarter because we'll be lapping the tariff benefits that we started to see in fourth quarter of last year.

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

Yeah. Just a reminder, we have very strong brands and very good pricing power. We feel comfortable whatever inflation or tariff impacts we may see, we have the pricing ability to offset that cost.

Keshav Choudhary
Keshav Choudhary
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Okay. Thank you. That helps. Just maybe one more. As you look towards fiscal 2027, the residential demand has been slow, and if the residential construction continues to remain soft, can the municipal repair and replacement activity and the specialty valve project continue to support growth, or do you see limits to how much of these markets can offset the resi weakness and resi will need to come back at some point to help with the growth?

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

Yeah. We don't give our guidance for 2027 until the next earnings call. We continue to look at all those market indicators as you referenced then, and we know that we're gonna be seeing continued or level out slowdown in residential construction. I'd like to add, residential construction cannot stay depressed forever. There is a pent-up demand of housing, and we know that it will bounce back, and that will be a tailwind for us as well when that bounce back comes.

Keshav Choudhary
Keshav Choudhary
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Okay. Thank you. That helps us a lot.

Operator

Thank you. I will now turn the call back over to Paul for any closing comments.

Paul McAndrew
President and CEO at Mueller Water Products

Thank you, operator. Thanks to everyone who joined us on our call today. Overall, we're excited about the quarter. Our results provide further evidence of the progress we are making in expanding margins, strengthening cash generation, investing in growth and simplification. Our increased annual guidance for adjusted EBITDA reflects the confidence we have in our commercial and operational capabilities. We remain vigilant in an increasingly uncertain external operating environment as it relates to demand, tariffs, and inflationary pressures. We'll stay focused on what we can control and take action if needed. I want to once again thank our dedicated team members. We look forward to speaking with you again on our fourth quarter results when they're announced in early November. With that, operator, please conclude the call.

Operator

Thank you, sir. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect at this time, have a great rest of your day.

Executives
    • Whit Kincaid
      Whit Kincaid
      VP of Investor Relations and Communications
    • Melissa Rasmussen
      Melissa Rasmussen
      CFO
Analysts