Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC Sells 685 Shares of Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI)

Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI) by 2.3% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 29,310 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 685 shares during the period. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC’s holdings in Badger Meter were worth $4,743,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of BMI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Badger Meter by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,651,786 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $563,726,000 after acquiring an additional 37,517 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Badger Meter by 33.7% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 397,614 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $61,380,000 after acquiring an additional 100,304 shares during the period. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of Badger Meter by 29.8% during 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 acquiring an additional 74,578 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Badger Meter during the fourth quarter worth approximately $47,359,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Badger Meter by 1.7% in the fourth 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 buying an additional 4,766 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BMI. Maxim Group lifted their price target on shares of Badger Meter from $190.00 to $207.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Badger Meter from $151.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Badger Meter from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Badger Meter from $175.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Badger Meter from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $174.75.

Badger Meter Price Performance

BMI traded down $3.25 during trading on Friday, hitting $190.74. 373,348 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 181,906. Badger Meter, Inc. has a twelve month low of $134.06 and a twelve month high of $202.81. The company has a market cap of $5.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.97, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.78. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $191.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $170.83.

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

Badger Meter Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 24th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 23rd. Badger Meter’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.12%.

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.