Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA) Receives $22.20 Average Price Target from Analysts

Shares of Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $22.20.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on MWA shares. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $27.00 price objective (up previously from $26.00) on shares of Mueller Water Products in a research note on Friday, November 8th. StockNews.com cut Mueller Water Products from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th.

Mueller Water Products Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE MWA opened at $23.13 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.28. Mueller Water Products has a one year low of $13.49 and a one year high of $26.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 3.33 and a quick ratio of 2.16.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.06. Mueller Water Products had a return on equity of 19.38% and a net margin of 8.82%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.13 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Mueller Water Products will post 1.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Mueller Water Products Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 21st. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th will be given a dividend of $0.067 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 10th. This represents a $0.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.16%. Mueller Water Products’s payout ratio is 36.99%.

Insider Activity at Mueller Water Products

In related news, CAO Suzanne G. Smith sold 26,138 shares of Mueller Water Products stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.99, for a total transaction of $653,188.62. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,378 shares in the company, valued at approximately $234,356.22. This trade represents a 73.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Lydia W. Thomas sold 10,791 shares of Mueller Water Products stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.40, for a total value of $263,300.40. Following the sale, the director now owns 136,405 shares in the company, valued at $3,328,282. This trade represents a 7.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 98,433 shares of company stock valued at $2,494,144 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Mueller Water Products

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MWA. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 2,962.3% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,015,009 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $67,838,000 after buying an additional 2,916,552 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 10.1% in the third 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. Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 67.5% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,644,603 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $37,004,000 after buying an additional 662,637 shares during the period. Lightrock Netherlands B.V. purchased a new position in shares of Mueller Water Products in the fourth quarter valued at $9,780,000. Finally, Algert Global LLC grew its position in shares of Mueller Water Products by 382.0% in the third quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 537,566 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $11,665,000 after purchasing an additional 426,038 shares in the last quarter. 91.68% of the stock is currently owned by 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.