Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $200.25.

BMI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Badger Meter from $175.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Badger Meter from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Argus increased their price objective on shares of Badger Meter from $204.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Badger Meter from $180.00 to $184.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd.

Insider Activity at Badger Meter

In other Badger Meter news, VP Kimberly K. Stoll sold 1,097 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.00, for a total transaction of $224,885.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 3,861 shares in the company, valued at $791,505. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Badger Meter

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Portside Wealth Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Badger Meter by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,377 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $257,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Farrow Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Badger Meter by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Farrow Financial Inc. now owns 20,064 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,739,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Badger Meter by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 1,871 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $349,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Argus Investors Counsel Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Badger Meter by 4.8% in the 2nd quarter. Argus Investors Counsel Inc. now owns 2,401 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $447,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arjuna Capital boosted its stake in shares of Badger Meter by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 2,636 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. 89.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Badger Meter Trading Up 2.2 %

NYSE BMI opened at $223.58 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $204.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $190.74. Badger Meter has a 1 year low of $134.06 and a 1 year high of $223.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.77.

Badger Meter (NYSE:BMI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.09. Badger Meter had a net margin of 14.44% and a return on equity of 21.42%. The firm had revenue of $216.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $203.39 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.76 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Badger Meter will post 4.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Badger Meter Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 23rd were paid a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 23rd. This is an increase from Badger Meter’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.61%. Badger Meter’s dividend payout ratio is 39.19%.

Badger Meter Company Profile

Badger Meter, Inc manufactures and markets flow measurement, quality, control, and communication solutions worldwide. It offers mechanical or static water meters, and related radio and software technologies and services to municipal water utilities market. The company also provides flow instrumentation products, including meters, valves, and other sensing instruments to measure and control fluids going through a pipe or pipeline, including water, air, steam, and other liquids and gases to original equipment manufacturers as the primary flow measurement device within a product or system, as well as through manufacturers' representatives.