Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) Upgraded by StockNews.com to “Strong-Buy”

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday.

MWA has been the topic of several other reports. TD Cowen lowered shares of Mueller Water Products from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the company from $19.00 to $20.00 in a report on Friday, August 9th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Mueller Water Products from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised 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 report on Wednesday, August 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Mueller Water Products has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $21.60.

Mueller Water Products Price Performance

NYSE:MWA opened at $19.57 on Monday. Mueller Water Products has a 52 week low of $12.13 and a 52 week high of $21.51. The firm has a market cap of $3.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.34. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $19.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 2.31 and a current ratio of 3.70.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The industrial products company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $329.67 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.18 earnings per share. Mueller Water Products’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Mueller Water Products will post 0.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Thomas J. Hansen sold 10,791 shares of Mueller Water Products stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.55, for a total transaction of $221,755.05. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 102,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,112,375.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider J Scott Hall sold 102,025 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.54, for a total value of $1,993,568.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 544,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,630,326.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas J. Hansen sold 10,791 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.55, for a total transaction of $221,755.05. Following the transaction, the director now owns 102,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,112,375.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 256,869 shares of company stock worth $5,141,842 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Pingora Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mueller Water Products during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. bought a new stake in Mueller Water Products during the 1st quarter valued at $46,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new stake in Mueller Water Products during the 2nd quarter valued at $72,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Mueller Water Products during the 1st quarter valued at $80,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in Mueller Water Products by 44.2% during the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,757 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 1,457 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.68% of the company’s stock.

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.