Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.07

Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.067 per share by the industrial products company on Friday, February 21st. This represents a $0.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.13%.

Mueller Water Products has raised its dividend by an average of 5.1% per year over the last three years. Mueller Water Products has a payout ratio of 20.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Mueller Water Products to earn $1.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.27 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.8%.

Mueller Water Products Stock Performance

NYSE MWA opened at $23.74 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 3.33. Mueller Water Products has a 52-week low of $13.49 and a 52-week high of $26.28. The company has a fifty day moving average of $23.72 and a 200-day moving average of $22.01.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.22. The firm had revenue of $348.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $324.80 million. Mueller Water Products had a return on equity of 19.38% and a net margin of 8.82%. The company’s revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.19 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Mueller Water Products will post 1.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on MWA shares. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $27.00 price target (up from $26.00) on shares of Mueller Water Products in a research report on Friday, November 8th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Mueller Water Products from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.20.

Insider Activity

In other Mueller Water Products news, CAO Suzanne G. Smith sold 26,138 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.99, for a total value of $653,188.62. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,378 shares in the company, valued at approximately $234,356.22. The trade was a 73.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Todd P. Helms sold 57,948 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.69, for a total transaction of $1,488,684.12. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 43,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,110,424.56. This represents a 57.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 98,433 shares of company stock valued at $2,494,144. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.