Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning.

MWA has been the subject of several other reports. Oppenheimer upgraded Mueller Water Products from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $19.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Mueller Water Products from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Mueller Water Products from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $17.50.

Mueller Water Products Stock Performance

Mueller Water Products stock opened at $15.91 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.82, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.33. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $15.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.41. Mueller Water Products has a 52 week low of $12.11 and a 52 week high of $16.93. The company has a current ratio of 3.29, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The industrial products company reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.09 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $256.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $250.64 million. Mueller Water Products had a return on equity of 13.86% and a net margin of 6.35%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.13 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Mueller Water Products will post 0.69 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, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.064 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. This represents a $0.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.61%. Mueller Water Products’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.00%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Arsdell Stephen C. Van bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $15.42 per share, for a total transaction of $154,200.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 80,603 shares in the company, valued at $1,242,898.26. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Todd P. Helms sold 37,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.15, for a total value of $560,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 41,181 shares in the company, valued at $623,892.15. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Arsdell Stephen C. Van bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was bought at an average price of $15.42 per share, with a total value of $154,200.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 80,603 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,242,898.26. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 69,458 shares of company stock worth $1,052,260. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MWA. Nuance Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Mueller Water Products by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 13,161,657 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $189,528,000 after purchasing an additional 1,022,785 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Mueller Water Products in the fourth quarter valued at about $14,642,000. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Mueller Water Products by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,498,710 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $107,981,000 after buying an additional 974,333 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Mueller Water Products by 31.4% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,440,275 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $30,943,000 after acquiring an additional 582,795 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,740,893 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $97,069,000 after acquiring an additional 430,572 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.68% of the company’s stock.

Mueller Water Products Company Profile

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.