Critical Contrast: Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) vs. NN (NASDAQ:NNBR)

NN (NASDAQ:NNBR) and Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

NN has a beta of 2.61, indicating that its stock price is 161% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mueller Water Products has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

53.9% of NN shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.7% of Mueller Water Products shares are owned by institutional investors. 19.6% of NN shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Mueller Water Products shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares NN and Mueller Water Products’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NN	-6.21%	20.38%	1.49%
Mueller Water Products	15.02%	23.55%	13.12%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for NN and Mueller Water Products, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NN	1	2	2	0	2.20
Mueller Water Products	1	2	2	0	2.20

NN currently has a consensus price target of $5.67, indicating a potential upside of 63.78%. Mueller Water Products has a consensus price target of $30.20, indicating a potential upside of 26.41%. Given NN’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe NN is more favorable than Mueller Water Products.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares NN and Mueller Water Products”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
NN	$422.21 million	0.68	-$34.00 million	($0.96)	-3.60
Mueller Water Products	$1.48 billion	2.52	$191.70 million	$1.41	16.94

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

Summary

Mueller Water Products beats NN on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About NN

NN, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells high-precision components and assemblies for various end markets in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Mobile Solutions and Power Solutions. The Mobile Solutions segment manufactures and sells system critical components for automotive, general industrial, and medical end markets for use in power steering, braking, transmissions, gasoline fuel system, diesel injection, and diesel emissions treatment applications, as well as in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. The Power Solutions segment designs, manufactures, and sells a range of high-precision metal and plastic components, assemblies, and finished devices used in various applications, such as power control and transportation electrification. Its products include electrical contacts, connectors, contact assemblies, and precision stampings for the electrical, general industrial, automotive, aerospace and defense, and medical end markets. This segment also produces various tools and instruments for the orthopaedics and medical/surgical end markets. NN, Inc. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

About Mueller Water Products

Mueller Water Products, Inc. manufactures and markets products and services for the transmission, distribution, and measurement of water used by municipalities, and the residential and non-residential construction industries in the United States, Israel, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Water Flow Solutions and Water Management Solutions. The Water Flow Solutions segment provides valves for water systems, such as iron gate, butterfly, tapping, check, knife, plug, and ball valves, which are used to control distribution and transmission of potable water and non-potable water, as well as in water transmission or distribution, water treatment facilities, or industrial applications. It also offers service brass products. The Water Management Solutions segment offers dry-barrel and wet-barrel fire hydrants for water infrastructure development; fire protection systems, and water infrastructure repair and replacement projects; pipe repair products, such as couplings, grips, and clamps used to repair leaks; residential, fire line, and commercial water metering products, systems, and services; water leak detection and pipe condition assessment products and services; machines and tools for tapping, drilling, extracting, installing, and stopping-off; gas valve products for use in gas distribution systems; and intelligent water solutions, including pressure control valves, advanced pressure management, network analytics, event management, and date logging. It sells its products under the Canada Valve, Centurion, Ez-Max, Hydro Gate, Hydro-Guard, HYMAX, HYMAX VERSA, Jones, Krausz, Milliken, Mueller, Pratt, Pratt Industrial, Repamax, Repaflex, Singer, Echologics, Echoshore, ePulse, Hersey, LeakFinderRT, LeakFinderST, LeakListener, LeakTuner, Mi.Echo, Mi.Net, Mueller Systems, Sentryx, and U.S. Pipe Valve and Hydrant brands. Mueller Water Products, Inc. was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.