Badger Meter, Inc. manufactures and markets flow measurement, quality, control, and communication solutions in the United States, Asia, Canada, Europe, Mexico, the Middle East, and internationally. It offers mechanical or static water meters, and related radio and software technologies and services to municipal water utilities. 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, oil, 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. Its flow instrumentation products are used in water/wastewater, heating, ventilating and air conditioning, and corporate sustainability markets. In addition, the company offers ORION Migratable for automatic meter reading; ORION (SE) for traditional fixed network applications; and ORION Cellular for infrastructure-free fixed network meter reading solution, as well as BEACON advanced metering analytics, a secure cloud-hosted software suite that establishes alerts for specific conditions and allows consumer engagement tools that permit end water customers to view and manage their water usage activity. It also serves water utilities, industrial, and other industries. The company sells its products directly, as well as through resellers and representatives. Badger Meter, Inc. was incorporated in 1905 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
BMI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Northcoast Research assumed coverage on Badger Meter in a report on Friday, July 15th. They set a "neutral" rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Badger Meter from $88.00 to $79.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 20th. TheStreet raised shares of Badger Meter from a "c+" rating to a "b-" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 3rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Badger Meter from $95.00 to $80.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 9th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Badger Meter from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, April 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Badger Meter currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $94.67.
Badger Meter Price Performance
BMI opened at $100.42 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.85 and a beta of 0.86. Badger Meter has a 12 month low of $73.20 and a 12 month high of $112.36. The business has a 50-day moving average of $84.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $89.33.
Badger Meter (NYSE:BMI - Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 20th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $137.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $132.04 million. Badger Meter had a net margin of 12.00% and a return on equity of 15.83%. Badger Meter's revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.48 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Badger Meter will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current year.
Badger Meter Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 9th. Investors of record on Friday, August 26th will be given a $0.225 dividend. This is a positive change from Badger Meter's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.90%. Badger Meter's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.53%.
Insider Activity at Badger Meter
In other Badger Meter news, VP William R. A. Bergum sold 2,362 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.40, for a total transaction of $227,696.80. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,861 shares in the company, valued at $1,143,400.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.