Badger Meter, Inc. (BMI) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.34 on March 14th

Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 14th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.34 per share by the scientific and technical instruments company on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

Badger Meter has raised its dividend payment by an average of 17.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 32 years. Badger Meter has a payout ratio of 24.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Badger Meter to earn $5.38 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.3%.

Badger Meter Price Performance

Shares of BMI stock opened at $207.44 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $6.10 billion, a PE ratio of 49.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.78. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $214.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $213.43. Badger Meter has a 1 year low of $150.87 and a 1 year high of $239.11.

Badger Meter (NYSE:BMI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.03. Badger Meter had a return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 15.12%. Equities research analysts expect that Badger Meter will post 4.65 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Badger Meter from $208.00 to $209.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Maxim Group increased their price target on Badger Meter from $235.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Badger Meter currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $218.75.

About Badger Meter

Badger Meter, Inc manufactures and markets flow measurement, quality, control, and communication solutions worldwide. It offers mechanical or static water meters, and related radio and software technologies and services to municipal water utilities market. The company also provides flow instrumentation products, including meters, valves, and other sensing instruments to measure and control fluids going through a pipe or pipeline, including water, air, steam, and other liquids and gases to original equipment manufacturers as the primary flow measurement device within a product or system, as well as through manufacturers' representatives.