Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Shares of Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the six brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $22.20.

MWA has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com downgraded Mueller Water Products from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $27.00 target price (up from $26.00) on shares of Mueller Water Products in a research report on Friday, November 8th.

Mueller Water Products Price Performance

MWA traded down $0.12 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $22.25. 1,182,047 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 799,449. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.64. Mueller Water Products has a 52-week low of $13.49 and a 52-week high of $26.28. The company has a market capitalization of $3.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.48, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a current ratio of 3.33, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.22. Mueller Water Products had a net margin of 8.82% and a return on equity of 19.38%. The firm had revenue of $348.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $324.80 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.19 EPS. Mueller Water Products's quarterly revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Mueller Water Products will post 1.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mueller Water Products Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a dividend of $0.067 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This is an increase from Mueller Water Products's previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.20%. Mueller Water Products's payout ratio is 35.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mueller Water Products

In other Mueller Water Products news, SVP Todd P. Helms sold 57,948 shares of Mueller Water Products stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.69, for a total value of $1,488,684.12. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 43,224 shares in the company, valued at $1,110,424.56. The trade was a 57.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Suzanne G. Smith sold 26,138 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.99, for a total value of $653,188.62. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,378 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $234,356.22. This represents a 73.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 98,433 shares of company stock worth $2,494,144 in the last ninety days. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mueller Water Products

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MWA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Mueller Water Products by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 924,706 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $20,066,000 after purchasing an additional 12,391 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 369.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 98,457 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $2,137,000 after buying an additional 77,467 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,618,782 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $197,456,000 after buying an additional 791,569 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp lifted its stake in Mueller Water Products by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 25,448 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $552,000 after acquiring an additional 12,724 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC purchased a new position in Mueller Water Products during the 3rd quarter valued at about $414,000. 91.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.