Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI) Receives $147.50 Average Price Target from Analysts

Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $147.50.

Several brokerages have issued reports on BMI. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Badger Meter from $142.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Northcoast Research raised Badger Meter from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com cut Badger Meter from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 3rd.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP William R. A. Bergum sold 194 shares of Badger Meter stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.55, for a total transaction of $30,952.70. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 13,672 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,181,367.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, VP William R. A. Bergum sold 194 shares of Badger Meter stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.55, for a total transaction of $30,952.70. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 13,672 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,181,367.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP William R. A. Bergum sold 1,416 shares of Badger Meter stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.23, for a total value of $221,221.68. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 13,422 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,096,919.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,813 shares of company stock valued at $448,167 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Badger Meter

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Badger Meter in the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,359,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its stake in Badger Meter by 434.2% in the 1st quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 372,468 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $45,372,000 after acquiring an additional 302,742 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Badger Meter by 10.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,070,197 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $167,458,000 after acquiring an additional 198,228 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Badger Meter by 129.1% in the 2nd quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 250,391 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $20,254,000 after acquiring an additional 141,111 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its stake in Badger Meter by 851.3% in the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 141,591 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $21,585,000 after acquiring an additional 126,707 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.01% of the company’s stock.

Badger Meter Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BMI opened at $178.51 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.84, a PEG ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.86. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $156.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $150.37. Badger Meter has a 52-week low of $119.02 and a 52-week high of $179.51.

Badger Meter (NYSE:BMI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $196.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $182.25 million. Badger Meter had a return on equity of 19.07% and a net margin of 13.16%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Badger Meter will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Badger Meter Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.61%. Badger Meter’s payout ratio is currently 34.39%.

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.