Royal Bank of Canada Increases Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) Price Target to $20.00

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) had its price objective lifted by Royal Bank of Canada from $17.00 to $20.00 in a report published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a sector perform rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

MWA has been the topic of several other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Mueller Water Products from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. StockNews.com lowered Mueller Water Products from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Oppenheimer upgraded Mueller Water Products from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $19.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Mueller Water Products from $18.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Mueller Water Products currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $20.00.

Mueller Water Products Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of Mueller Water Products stock traded up $0.30 on Wednesday, hitting $19.16. The company had a trading volume of 3,387,382 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,208,988. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a current ratio of 3.29. Mueller Water Products has a 1 year low of $12.11 and a 1 year high of $19.17. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $15.82 and a 200-day moving average of $14.57.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $353.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $299.62 million. Mueller Water Products had a return on equity of 13.86% and a net margin of 6.35%. Mueller Water Products’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.14 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Mueller Water Products will post 0.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Mueller Water Products Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.064 per share. This represents a $0.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. Mueller Water Products’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.06%.

Insider Transactions at Mueller Water Products

In other news, SVP Kenji Takeuchi sold 6,658 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.62, for a total value of $103,997.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 34,196 shares in the company, valued at $534,141.52. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Suzanne G. Smith sold 2,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.09, for a total value of $42,252.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,408.72. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Kenji Takeuchi sold 6,658 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.62, for a total transaction of $103,997.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 34,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $534,141.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 69,458 shares of company stock worth $1,052,260 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nuance Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 13,161,657 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $189,528,000 after purchasing an additional 1,022,785 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Mueller Water Products in the fourth quarter worth $14,642,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Mueller Water Products by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,498,710 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $107,981,000 after buying an additional 974,333 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 31.4% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,440,275 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $30,943,000 after buying an additional 582,795 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,740,893 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $97,069,000 after buying an additional 430,572 shares during the period. 91.68% of the stock is currently 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.