Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) to Buy Back $300.00 million in Outstanding Stock

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, October 22nd, RTT News reports. The company plans to buy back $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the industrial products company to buy up to 8.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Share repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MWA. Royal Bank Of Canada cut shares of Mueller Water Products from a “sector perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Weiss Ratings cut Mueller Water Products from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 16th. Barclays assumed coverage on Mueller Water Products in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $25.00 target price on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Mueller Water Products from $29.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Mueller Water Products from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.00.

Mueller Water Products Trading Up 2.0%

Shares of MWA stock traded up $0.45 on Thursday, hitting $22.31. 1,324,460 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,381,087. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 3.08 and a current ratio of 4.64. Mueller Water Products has a one year low of $20.90 and a one year high of $31.00. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.92, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.01.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The industrial products company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $395.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $391.49 million. Mueller Water Products had a net margin of 15.02% and a return on equity of 23.55%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.34 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Mueller Water Products will post 1.52 EPS for the current year.

Mueller Water Products Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 10th were given a dividend of $0.07 per share. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 10th. Mueller Water Products’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mueller Water Products

In other news, Director Christine Ortiz sold 12,048 shares of Mueller Water Products stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.23, for a total value of $291,923.04. Following the transaction, the director owned 30,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $746,865.52. The trade was a 28.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Paul McAndrew sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.39, for a total value of $1,055,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 42,556 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,123,052.84. This trade represents a 48.45% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 52,598 shares of company stock worth $1,360,685 over the last three months. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

About Mueller Water Products

Mueller Water Products, Inc (NYSE:MWA) manufactures products and provides services used in the treatment, transmission, distribution, and measurement of water. Its customers include municipalities, water utilities, distributors, contractors, and industrial organizations.

The company’s product portfolio includes water valves, fire hydrants, pipe fittings, repair and connection products, and related infrastructure equipment. Through its Echologics business, Mueller also provides acoustic leak-detection technologies and other solutions designed to help utilities monitor and manage water distribution systems.

Mueller Water Products traces its history to Mueller Co, which was founded in 1857.