Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA) Plans $0.06 Quarterly Dividend

Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 24th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.064 per share by the industrial products company on Monday, May 20th. This represents a $0.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th.

Mueller Water Products has raised its dividend by an average of 5.1% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 9 years. Mueller Water Products has a dividend payout ratio of 32.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Mueller Water Products to earn $0.82 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.26 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.7%.

Mueller Water Products Stock Performance

Shares of MWA opened at $16.14 on Friday. Mueller Water Products has a 1 year low of $12.11 and a 1 year high of $16.93. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $15.66 and a 200-day moving average of $14.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a current ratio of 3.29. The company has a market cap of $2.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.35.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The industrial products company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.04. Mueller Water Products had a net margin of 6.35% and a return on equity of 13.86%. The business had revenue of $256.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $250.64 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.13 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Mueller Water Products will post 0.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MWA has been the topic of several research 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 research report on Tuesday, February 13th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Mueller Water Products from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 16th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Mueller Water Products from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $19.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Mueller Water Products from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $17.50.

Insider Transactions at Mueller Water Products

In related news, COO Paul Mcandrew sold 23,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.02, for a total value of $345,460.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 6,701 shares in the company, valued at $100,649.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, COO Paul Mcandrew sold 23,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.02, for a total transaction of $345,460.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 6,701 shares in the company, valued at $100,649.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Arsdell Stephen C. Van bought 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The shares were acquired at an average price of $15.42 per share, for a total transaction of $154,200.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 80,603 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,242,898.26. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 69,458 shares of company stock worth $1,052,260 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by 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.