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. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.13%.

Mueller Water Products has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.1% annually over the last three years. Mueller Water Products has a dividend payout ratio of 20.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Price Performance

Mueller Water Products stock traded up $0.17 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $23.74. 1,087,946 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,194,346. The company has a current ratio of 3.33, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Mueller Water Products has a twelve month low of $13.49 and a twelve month high of $26.28. The company has a market cap of $3.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.38. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $23.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $22.01.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22. The firm had revenue of $348.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 last year, the business posted $0.19 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Mueller Water Products will post 1.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Mueller Water Products

In related news, SVP Todd P. Helms sold 3,556 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.02, for a total value of $88,971.12. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,683 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $967,848.66. This represents a 8.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Suzanne G. Smith sold 26,138 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 9,378 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $234,356.22. This represents a 73.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 98,433 shares of company stock worth $2,494,144 in the last three months. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Mueller Water Products from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $27.00 price objective (up previously from $26.00) on shares of Mueller Water Products in a report on Friday, November 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Mueller Water Products has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.20.

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.