Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.34

Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 8th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a dividend of 0.34 per share by the scientific and technical instruments company on Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd.

Badger Meter has raised its dividend payment by an average of 12.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 32 consecutive years. Badger Meter has a dividend payout ratio of 27.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Badger Meter to earn $4.68 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.1%.

Badger Meter Trading Up 2.7 %

NYSE BMI opened at $216.85 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $214.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $201.55. The stock has a market cap of $6.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.78. Badger Meter has a 52 week low of $139.50 and a 52 week high of $230.76.

Badger Meter (NYSE:BMI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $208.44 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $212.08 million. Badger Meter had a return on equity of 21.56% and a net margin of 14.80%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Badger Meter will post 4.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BMI shares. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Badger Meter from $184.00 to $203.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com cut shares of Badger Meter from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Badger Meter from $189.00 to $203.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Maxim Group raised their price objective on shares of Badger Meter from $216.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Badger Meter has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $214.75.

About Badger Meter

Badger Meter, Inc manufactures and markets flow measurement, quality, control, and communication solutions worldwide. It offers mechanical or static water meters, and related radio and software technologies and services to municipal water utilities market. The company also provides flow instrumentation products, including meters, valves, and other sensing instruments to measure and control fluids going through a pipe or pipeline, including water, air, steam, and other liquids and gases to original equipment manufacturers as the primary flow measurement device within a product or system, as well as through manufacturers' representatives.