Perpetual Ltd Raises Position in Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA)

Perpetual Ltd boosted its stake in Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA) by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 320,190 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 53,968 shares during the quarter. Perpetual Ltd’s holdings in Mueller Water Products were worth $6,948,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MWA. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 1.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,231,209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $245,070,000 after purchasing an additional 227,843 shares in the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL increased its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 0.5% during the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 3,143,039 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $50,571,000 after purchasing an additional 15,346 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 399.0% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,962,757 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $53,093,000 after purchasing an additional 2,369,055 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 24.6% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,999,869 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $35,838,000 after purchasing an additional 395,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 6.1% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,055,545 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $18,915,000 after purchasing an additional 61,122 shares in the last quarter. 91.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MWA. TD Cowen downgraded shares of Mueller Water Products from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the company from $19.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Friday, August 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Mueller Water Products from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Mueller Water Products from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Mueller Water Products from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Mueller Water Products presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Mueller Water Products news, Director Thomas J. Hansen sold 10,791 shares of Mueller Water Products stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.55, for a total value of $221,755.05. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 102,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,112,375.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Mueller Water Products news, Director Thomas J. Hansen sold 10,791 shares of Mueller Water Products stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.55, for a total value of $221,755.05. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 102,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,112,375.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider J Scott Hall sold 135,253 shares of Mueller Water Products stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.34, for a total transaction of $2,751,046.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 544,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,065,549.86. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 256,869 shares of company stock valued at $5,141,842. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Mueller Water Products Price Performance

Shares of MWA opened at $22.01 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a quick ratio of 2.31, a current ratio of 3.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $20.71 and a 200 day moving average of $18.77. Mueller Water Products, Inc. has a twelve month low of $12.13 and a twelve month high of $22.88.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The industrial products company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.10. Mueller Water Products had a net margin of 9.71% and a return on equity of 19.46%. The business had revenue of $356.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $329.67 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.18 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Mueller Water Products, Inc. will post 0.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mueller Water Products Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.064 dividend. This represents a $0.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. Mueller Water Products’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.33%.

Mueller Water Products 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.