Mueller Water Products Inc. manufactures and markets products and services used in the transmission, distribution, and measurement of water in North America and internationally. Its products and services are used by municipalities, and the residential and non-residential construction industries. It operates through two segments, Infrastructure and Technologies. The company's Infrastructure segment manufactures and sells valves for water and gas systems, including iron gate, butterfly, tapping, check, knife, plug, automatic control, and ball valves; and dry-barrel and wet-barrel fire hydrants and service brass products, as well as a line of pipe repair products, such as clamps and couplings used to repair leaks. This segment offers its products under Canada Valve, Centurion, Ez-Max, Hydro Gate, Hydro-Guard, HYMAX, HYMAX VERSA, Jones, Krausz, Milliken, Mueller, Pratt, Pratt Industrial, Repamax, Repaflex, and Singer brands. Its Technologies segment offers residential and commercial water metering, water leak detection and pipe condition assessment products, systems, and services. It offers products under Echologics, Echoshore, ePulse, Hersey, LeakFinderRT, LeakFinderST, LeakListener, LeakTuner, Mi.Echo, Mi.Data, Mi.Hydrant, Mi.Net, Mueller Systems, and Sentryx brands. The company was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of analysts have recently weighed in on MWA shares. Northcoast Research started coverage on shares of Mueller Water Products in a research note on Friday, July 15th. They issued a "neutral" rating on the stock. TheStreet upgraded shares of Mueller Water Products from a "c+" rating to a "b" rating in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Mueller Water Products from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 19th. Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Mueller Water Products from $15.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 28th. Finally, Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Mueller Water Products from $15.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $13.00.
Mueller Water Products Stock Performance
MWA Stock traded up $0.19 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $12.07. 34,522 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 776,593. The firm has a market cap of $1.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.21, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 3.26 and a quick ratio of 2.07. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $11.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.30. Mueller Water Products has a 1-year low of $10.88 and a 1-year high of $17.37.
Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA - Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 4th. The industrial products company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $333.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $330.29 million. Mueller Water Products had a net margin of 7.25% and a return on equity of 13.67%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.18 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Mueller Water Products will post 0.62 earnings per share for the current year.
Mueller Water Products Dividend Announcement
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 22nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 10th will be given a dividend of $0.058 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 9th. This represents a $0.23 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.92%. Mueller Water Products's dividend payout ratio is presently 41.07%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Mueller Water Products
In other Mueller Water Products news, EVP Steven S. Heinrichs sold 17,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.54, for a total transaction of $196,180.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 55,316 shares of the company's stock, valued at $638,346.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Mueller Water Products news, Director Shirley C. Franklin sold 7,000 shares of Mueller Water Products stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.94, for a total transaction of $83,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 56,776 shares in the company, valued at $677,905.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Steven S. Heinrichs sold 17,000 shares of Mueller Water Products stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.54, for a total transaction of $196,180.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 55,316 shares of the company's stock, valued at $638,346.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.50% of the company's stock.