Badger Meter, Inc. $BMI Shares Acquired by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI) by 13.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,725 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 781 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Badger Meter were worth $1,279,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Badger Meter by 25.9% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 630,891 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $120,027,000 after buying an additional 129,945 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co. increased its stake in Badger Meter by 9.8% during the 1st quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 398,588 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $75,831,000 after buying an additional 35,424 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Badger Meter by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 348,476 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $73,919,000 after buying an additional 27,797 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new position in Badger Meter during the 1st quarter valued at about $65,448,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Badger Meter by 184.6% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 256,217 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $54,350,000 after buying an additional 166,191 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on BMI. Stifel Nicolaus set a $224.00 target price on shares of Badger Meter in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Badger Meter from $216.00 to $219.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Badger Meter from $284.00 to $264.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Raymond James Financial began coverage on shares of Badger Meter in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $238.40.

Badger Meter Trading Down 2.1%

NYSE:BMI opened at $185.2270 on Tuesday. Badger Meter, Inc. has a twelve month low of $162.17 and a twelve month high of $256.08. The company has a 50-day moving average of $215.82 and a 200-day moving average of $215.69. The firm has a market cap of $5.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.84.

Badger Meter (NYSE:BMI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.19 by ($0.02). Badger Meter had a return on equity of 21.57% and a net margin of 15.53%.The firm had revenue of $238.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $235.38 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.12 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Badger Meter, Inc. will post 4.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Badger Meter Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 22nd will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 22nd. This is a positive change from Badger Meter’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Badger Meter’s dividend payout ratio is 34.86%.

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.