Mueller Water Products (MWA) Competitors

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) and IDEX (NYSE:IEX) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends, valuation and community ranking.

Do institutionals & insiders believe in MWA or IEX?

91.7% of Mueller Water Products shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.0% of IDEX shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Mueller Water Products shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of IDEX shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more risk & volatility, MWA or IEX?

Mueller Water Products has a beta of 1.24, meaning that its share price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, IDEX has a beta of 1.07, meaning that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, MWA or IEX?

IDEX has higher revenue and earnings than Mueller Water Products. Mueller Water Products is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than IDEX, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mueller Water Products	$1.37B	2.88	$115.90M	$0.91	27.77
IDEX	$3.28B	4.33	$505M	$6.31	29.80

Is MWA or IEX more profitable?

IDEX has a net margin of 15.45% compared to Mueller Water Products' net margin of 10.05%. Mueller Water Products' return on equity of 21.18% beat IDEX's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mueller Water Products	10.05%	21.18%	10.62%
IDEX	15.45%	16.08%	9.39%

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in MWA or IEX?

IDEX received 28 more outperform votes than Mueller Water Products when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.27% of users gave Mueller Water Products an outperform vote while only 58.77% of users gave IDEX an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Mueller Water Products	Outperform Votes 448 66.27%	Underperform Votes 228 33.73%
IDEX	Outperform Votes 476 58.77%	Underperform Votes 334 41.23%

Does the media refer more to MWA or IEX?

In the previous week, Mueller Water Products had 9 more articles in the media than IDEX. MarketBeat recorded 21 mentions for Mueller Water Products and 12 mentions for IDEX. IDEX's average media sentiment score of 1.23 beat Mueller Water Products' score of 1.18 indicating that IDEX is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Mueller Water Products	16 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
IDEX	8 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts prefer MWA or IEX?

Mueller Water Products currently has a consensus price target of $26.25, indicating a potential upside of 3.88%. IDEX has a consensus price target of $212.50, indicating a potential upside of 13.01%. Given IDEX's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe IDEX is more favorable than Mueller Water Products.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mueller Water Products	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25
IDEX	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75

Is MWA or IEX a better dividend stock?

Mueller Water Products pays an annual dividend of $0.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. IDEX pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Mueller Water Products pays out 28.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. IDEX pays out 45.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Mueller Water Products has raised its dividend for 10 consecutive years and IDEX has raised its dividend for 16 consecutive years. IDEX is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

IDEX beats Mueller Water Products on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.