Moors & Cabot Inc. Sells 8,725 Shares of Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA)

Moors & Cabot Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA) by 30.1% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 20,225 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 8,725 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in Mueller Water Products were worth $439,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MWA. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings 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 worth $245,070,000 after purchasing an additional 227,843 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Mueller Water Products by 399.0% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,962,757 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $53,093,000 after buying an additional 2,369,055 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in Mueller Water Products by 24.6% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,999,869 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $35,838,000 after buying an additional 395,123 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Mueller Water Products by 6.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,055,545 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $18,915,000 after acquiring an additional 61,122 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Mueller Water Products by 194.4% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,033,939 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $18,528,000 after acquiring an additional 682,740 shares in the last quarter. 91.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MWA has been the topic of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Mueller Water Products from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price 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. TD Cowen cut shares of Mueller Water Products from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $19.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $27.00 price objective (up from $26.00) on shares of Mueller Water Products in a report on Friday, November 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.20.

Mueller Water Products Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:MWA opened at $25.18 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $22.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $20.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 2.31 and a current ratio of 3.70. The company has a market capitalization of $3.92 billion, a PE ratio of 34.49, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.34. Mueller Water Products, Inc. has a 52 week low of $13.08 and a 52 week high of $26.28.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22. The business had revenue of $348.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $324.80 million. Mueller Water Products had a net margin of 8.82% and a return on equity of 19.71%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.19 EPS. Analysts forecast that Mueller Water Products, Inc. will post 1.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Mueller Water Products Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were given a $0.067 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This is a positive change from Mueller Water Products’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.27 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.06%. Mueller Water Products’s payout ratio is currently 36.99%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Lydia W. Thomas sold 10,791 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.40, for a total value of $263,300.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 136,405 shares in the company, valued at $3,328,282. This represents a 7.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.