Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) Hits New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $24.57 and last traded at $24.11, with a volume of 60360 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $22.69.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MWA. TD Cowen lowered shares of Mueller Water Products from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $19.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Mueller Water Products from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Mueller Water Products from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Mueller Water Products from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.60.

Mueller Water Products Price Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $21.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 3.70 and a quick ratio of 2.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.34.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The industrial products company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.10. Mueller Water Products had a net margin of 9.71% and a return on equity of 19.46%. The business had revenue of $356.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $329.67 million. The business’s revenue was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.18 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Mueller Water Products, Inc. will post 0.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mueller Water Products Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th will be paid a $0.067 dividend. This is an increase from Mueller Water Products’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.12%. Mueller Water Products’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.33%.

Insider Activity at Mueller Water Products

In other Mueller Water Products news, insider J Scott Hall sold 135,253 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.34, for a total value of $2,751,046.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 544,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,065,549.86. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, Director Christine Ortiz sold 8,800 shares of Mueller Water Products stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.94, for a total transaction of $175,472.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 34,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $691,898.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider J Scott Hall sold 135,253 shares of Mueller Water Products stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.34, for a total value of $2,751,046.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 544,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,065,549.86. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 256,869 shares of company stock valued at $5,141,842 in the last 90 days. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of MWA. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Mueller Water Products by 1.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,231,209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $245,070,000 after purchasing an additional 227,843 shares during the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its position in Mueller Water Products by 0.5% during the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 3,143,039 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $50,571,000 after purchasing an additional 15,346 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products by 399.0% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,962,757 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $53,093,000 after buying an additional 2,369,055 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products by 24.6% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,999,869 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $35,838,000 after acquiring an additional 395,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Mueller Water Products by 6.1% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,055,545 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $18,915,000 after acquiring an additional 61,122 shares in the last quarter. 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.