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

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 increased 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. 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

Shares of NYSE MWA opened at $23.74 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.52, a PEG 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 fifty-two week low of $13.49 and a fifty-two week high of $26.28. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $23.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.01.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) last posted 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 company had revenue of $348.20 million for 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 for the quarter was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.19 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Mueller Water Products will post 1.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on MWA shares. Oppenheimer reissued 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 cut shares of Mueller Water Products from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mueller Water Products currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.20.

Insider Activity at Mueller Water Products

In other news, CAO Suzanne G. Smith sold 26,138 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.99, for a total transaction of $653,188.62. Following the completion of 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Lydia W. Thomas sold 10,791 shares of Mueller Water Products stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.40, for a total transaction of $263,300.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 136,405 shares in the company, valued at $3,328,282. This trade represents a 7.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 98,433 shares of company stock worth $2,494,144. 1.10% of the stock is 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.