Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) Price Target Raised to $20.00

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) had its price target raised by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $17.00 to $20.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “sector perform” rating on the industrial products company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 6.21% from the company’s current price.

MWA has been the subject of several other reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Mueller Water Products from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Oppenheimer raised shares of Mueller Water Products from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $19.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Mueller Water Products from $18.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Mueller Water Products from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Six 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 $20.00.

Mueller Water Products Stock Up 4.6 %

Shares of MWA traded up $0.82 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $18.83. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,540,875 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,172,936. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.30, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s 50-day moving average is $15.75 and its 200-day moving average is $14.54. The company has a current ratio of 3.29, a quick ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Mueller Water Products has a 52-week low of $12.11 and a 52-week high of $18.99.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.15. Mueller Water Products had a return on equity of 13.86% and a net margin of 6.35%. The company had revenue of $353.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $299.62 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.14 earnings per share. Mueller Water Products’s revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Mueller Water Products will post 0.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Mueller Water Products news, COO Paul Mcandrew sold 23,000 shares of Mueller Water Products stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.02, for a total transaction of $345,460.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 6,701 shares in the company, valued at approximately $100,649.02. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, COO Paul Mcandrew sold 23,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were 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 approximately $100,649.02. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Arsdell Stephen C. Van purchased 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were purchased at an average price of $15.42 per share, for a total transaction of $154,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now 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 valued at $1,052,260 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Mueller Water Products

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MWA. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Mueller Water Products by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,003,366 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $216,048,000 after purchasing an additional 147,482 shares during the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 13,161,657 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $189,528,000 after acquiring an additional 1,022,785 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,498,710 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $107,981,000 after acquiring an additional 974,333 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its position in shares of Mueller Water Products by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 6,740,893 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $97,069,000 after acquiring an additional 430,572 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,417,005 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $78,006,000 after acquiring an additional 138,018 shares during the last quarter. 91.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Mueller Water Products Company Profile

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.