StockNews.com Upgrades Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) to Strong-Buy

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWAGet Free Report) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Tuesday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Mueller Water Products from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Mueller Water Products from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, TD Cowen cut Mueller Water Products from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price target for the company from $19.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.60.

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Mueller Water Products Price Performance

Shares of MWA stock opened at $22.03 on Tuesday. Mueller Water Products has a 1-year low of $12.13 and a 1-year high of $23.12. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $21.18 and its 200 day moving average is $19.21. The company has a market cap of $3.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.42, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 3.70 and a quick ratio of 2.31.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWAGet Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The industrial products company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.10. Mueller Water Products had a return on equity of 19.46% and a net margin of 9.71%. The company had revenue of $356.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $329.67 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.18 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Mueller Water Products will post 0.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Mueller Water Products

In other news, Director Christine Ortiz sold 8,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.94, for a total value of $175,472.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,699 shares in the company, valued at $691,898.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Christine Ortiz sold 8,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.94, for a total transaction of $175,472.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 34,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $691,898.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider J Scott Hall sold 102,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.54, for a total value of $1,993,568.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 544,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,630,326.66. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 256,869 shares of company stock worth $5,141,842 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Mueller Water Products

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MWA. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Mueller Water Products by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,003,366 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $216,048,000 after acquiring an additional 147,482 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Mueller Water Products in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $264,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Mueller Water Products in the first quarter valued at approximately $80,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in Mueller Water Products by 12.6% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 193,595 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,115,000 after purchasing an additional 21,604 shares during the period. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its holdings in Mueller Water Products by 17.7% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 76,409 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,229,000 after purchasing an additional 11,463 shares during the period. 91.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Mueller Water Products

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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.

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Analyst Recommendations for Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA)

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