Critical Review: Perma-Pipe International (NASDAQ:PPIH) vs. Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA)

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) and Perma-Pipe International (NASDAQ:PPIH) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and dividends.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Mueller Water Products and Perma-Pipe International”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mueller Water Products	$1.31 billion	2.79	$115.90 million	$0.91	25.68
Perma-Pipe International	$158.38 million	1.18	$8.98 million	$1.54	15.21

Mueller Water Products has higher revenue and earnings than Perma-Pipe International. Perma-Pipe International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Mueller Water Products, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Mueller Water Products and Perma-Pipe International, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mueller Water Products	0	3	1	0	2.25
Perma-Pipe International	0	0	0	0	0.00

Mueller Water Products presently has a consensus target price of $26.25, indicating a potential upside of 12.32%. Given Mueller Water Products’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Mueller Water Products is more favorable than Perma-Pipe International.

Volatility & Risk

Mueller Water Products has a beta of 1.21, indicating that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Perma-Pipe International has a beta of 0.27, indicating that its share price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

91.7% of Mueller Water Products shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 28.4% of Perma-Pipe International shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Mueller Water Products shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.0% of Perma-Pipe International shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Mueller Water Products and Perma-Pipe International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mueller Water Products	10.48%	21.31%	10.86%
Perma-Pipe International	7.31%	17.84%	7.81%

Summary

Mueller Water Products beats Perma-Pipe International on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. The Water Flow Solutions segment provides valves for water systems, such as iron gate, butterfly, tapping, check, knife, plug, and ball valves, which are used to control distribution and transmission of potable water and non-potable water, as well as in water transmission or distribution, water treatment facilities, or industrial applications. It also offers service brass products. The Water Management Solutions segment offers dry-barrel and wet-barrel fire hydrants for water infrastructure development; fire protection systems, and water infrastructure repair and replacement projects; pipe repair products, such as couplings, grips, and clamps used to repair leaks; residential, fire line, and commercial water metering products, systems, and services; water leak detection and pipe condition assessment products and services; machines and tools for tapping, drilling, extracting, installing, and stopping-off; gas valve products for use in gas distribution systems; and intelligent water solutions, including pressure control valves, advanced pressure management, network analytics, event management, and date logging. It sells its products under the Canada Valve, Centurion, Ez-Max, Hydro Gate, Hydro-Guard, HYMAX, HYMAX VERSA, Jones, Krausz, Milliken, Mueller, Pratt, Pratt Industrial, Repamax, Repaflex, Singer, Echologics, Echoshore, ePulse, Hersey, LeakFinderRT, LeakFinderST, LeakListener, LeakTuner, Mi.Echo, Mi.Net, Mueller Systems, Sentryx, and U.S. Pipe Valve and Hydrant brands. Mueller Water Products, Inc. was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

About Perma-Pipe International

Perma-Pipe International Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engineers, designs, manufactures, and sells specialty piping and leak detection systems. It offers insulated and jacketed district heating and cooling piping systems for energy distribution from central energy plants to various locations; and primary and secondary containment piping systems for transporting chemicals, hazardous fluids, and petroleum products, as well as engages in the coating and insulation of oil and gas gathering and transmission pipelines. The company also offers liquid and powder based anti-corrosion coatings for external and internal surfaces of steel pipe, including shapes like bends, reducers, tees, and other spools/fittings that is used in pipelines for the transportation of oil and gas products and potable water. It has operations in the United States, Canada, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, India, and internationally. The company was formerly known as MFRI, Inc. and changed its name to Perma-Pipe International Holdings, Inc. in March 2017. Perma-Pipe International Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Spring, Texas.