River Street Advisors LLC Buys 165 Shares of Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI)

River Street Advisors LLC raised its stake in Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI) by 4.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,528 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the quarter. River Street Advisors LLC’s holdings in Badger Meter were worth $571,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BMI. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Badger Meter by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,651,786 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $563,726,000 after purchasing an additional 37,517 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Badger Meter by 33.7% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 397,614 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $61,380,000 after acquiring an additional 100,304 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in Badger Meter by 29.8% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 324,720 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,127,000 after purchasing an additional 74,578 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Badger Meter during the 4th quarter worth about $47,359,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Badger Meter by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 288,004 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $44,459,000 after purchasing an additional 4,766 shares during the period. 89.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on BMI shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Badger Meter from $147.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Northcoast Research raised Badger Meter from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Badger Meter from $151.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. StockNews.com lowered Badger Meter from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Finally, Maxim Group boosted their target price on Badger Meter from $190.00 to $207.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $170.50.

Badger Meter Stock Performance

BMI stock traded up $0.21 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $186.35. 326,749 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 134,391. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $190.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $167.11. The company has a market cap of $5.48 billion, a PE ratio of 53.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.81. Badger Meter, Inc. has a one year low of $134.06 and a one year high of $202.81.

Badger Meter (NYSE:BMI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $196.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $182.25 million. Badger Meter had a return on equity of 20.26% and a net margin of 13.81%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Badger Meter, Inc. will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

Badger Meter Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 24th were paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 23rd. Badger Meter’s dividend payout ratio is 31.12%.

About Badger Meter

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.