Watts Water Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:WTS) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.43

Watts Water Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:WTS) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, August 5th, NASDAQ reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be given a dividend of 0.43 per share by the technology company on Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th.

Watts Water Technologies has increased its dividend by an average of 14.5% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 11 consecutive years. Watts Water Technologies has a payout ratio of 19.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Watts Water Technologies to earn $9.06 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 19.0%.

Watts Water Technologies Stock Performance

NYSE WTS traded up $2.42 on Tuesday, hitting $196.40. 216,546 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 144,681. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.48 and a quick ratio of 1.44. The business’s fifty day moving average is $191.05 and its 200 day moving average is $200.19. Watts Water Technologies has a 52 week low of $167.87 and a 52 week high of $219.52. The company has a market capitalization of $6.55 billion, a PE ratio of 24.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.90.

Watts Water Technologies (NYSE:WTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The technology company reported $2.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.11 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $570.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $547.20 million. Watts Water Technologies had a net margin of 12.53% and a return on equity of 19.61%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 21.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.92 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Watts Water Technologies will post 8.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Watts Water Technologies

In related news, CFO Shashank Patel sold 1,508 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.10, for a total value of $324,370.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,204 shares in the company, valued at $4,345,880.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Shashank Patel sold 1,508 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.10, for a total value of $324,370.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,204 shares in the company, valued at $4,345,880.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Elie Melhem sold 2,051 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $442,011.01. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,226 shares in the company, valued at $2,850,335.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 5,753 shares of company stock worth $1,236,753. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WTS has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Watts Water Technologies from $212.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 10th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Watts Water Technologies from $209.00 to $217.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th.

About Watts Water Technologies

Watts Water Technologies, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, supplies products and solutions that manage and conserve the flow of fluids and energy into, through, and out of buildings in the commercial, industrial, and residential markets in the Americas, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa.