Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI) Receives Consensus Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• Badger Meter, Inc. has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from analysts, with five analysts recommending a hold and three suggesting a buy.
• The company recently announced a quarterly dividend increase from $0.34 to $0.40, reflecting a yield of 0.9%.
• Badger Meter reported $1.17 earnings per share for its latest quarter, falling short of the consensus estimate of $1.19, despite a 9.9% year-over-year revenue increase.

Shares of Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of "Hold" from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $237.00.

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on Badger Meter from $284.00 to $264.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Badger Meter from $216.00 to $219.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of Badger Meter in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $230.00 price target on the stock. Zacks Research raised shares of Badger Meter from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Badger Meter from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp grew its stake in Badger Meter by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,462,807 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $358,315,000 after acquiring an additional 20,122 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Badger Meter by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 876,519 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $215,464,000 after purchasing an additional 19,340 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Badger Meter by 27.1% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 802,166 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $196,491,000 after buying an additional 171,275 shares in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP boosted its holdings in Badger Meter by 78.1% in the 2nd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 612,809 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $150,108,000 after buying an additional 268,799 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Congress Asset Management Co. boosted its holdings in Badger Meter by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 407,059 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $99,709,000 after buying an additional 8,471 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.01% of the company's stock.

Badger Meter Price Performance

Shares of Badger Meter stock opened at $180.39 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $5.32 billion, a PE ratio of 39.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.90. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $181.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $208.67. Badger Meter has a 1 year low of $162.17 and a 1 year high of $256.08.

Badger Meter (NYSE:BMI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.19 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $238.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $235.38 million. Badger Meter had a return on equity of 21.57% and a net margin of 15.53%.Badger Meter's revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.12 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Badger Meter will post 4.65 EPS for the current year.

Badger Meter Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 22nd were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 22nd. This is an increase from Badger Meter's previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Badger Meter's dividend payout ratio is 34.86%.

Badger Meter Company Profile

Badger Meter, Inc manufactures and markets flow measurement, quality, control, and communication solutions worldwide. It offers mechanical or static water meters, and related radio and software technologies and services to municipal water utilities market. The company also provides flow instrumentation products, including meters, valves, and other sensing instruments to measure and control fluids going through a pipe or pipeline, including water, air, steam, and other liquids and gases to original equipment manufacturers as the primary flow measurement device within a product or system, as well as through manufacturers' representatives.

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