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.
Badger Meter Stock Performance
Shares of BMI opened at $100.42 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $84.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $89.32. Badger Meter has a fifty-two week low of $73.20 and a fifty-two week high of $112.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.94 billion, a PE ratio of 45.85 and a beta of 0.86.
Badger Meter (NYSE:BMI - Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 20th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $137.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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 for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.48 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Badger Meter will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.
Badger Meter Increases Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 26th will be issued a $0.225 dividend. This represents a $0.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. This is a boost from Badger Meter's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Badger Meter's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.53%.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of brokerages recently weighed in on BMI. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Badger Meter from $88.00 to $79.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 20th. Northcoast Research started coverage on Badger Meter in a research note on Friday, July 15th. They set a "neutral" rating on the stock. TheStreet upgraded shares of Badger Meter from a "c+" rating to a "b-" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Badger Meter from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, April 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Badger Meter from $95.00 to $80.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $94.67.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other news, VP William R. A. Bergum sold 2,362 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.40, for a total value of $227,696.80. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 11,861 shares in the company, valued at $1,143,400.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.80% of the company's stock.