Comparing Kubota (OTCMKTS:KUBTY) & Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA)

Kubota (OTCMKTS:KUBTY) and Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, valuation and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

0.4% of Kubota shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.7% of Mueller Water Products shares are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of Kubota shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Mueller Water Products shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Kubota pays an annual dividend of $1.19 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Mueller Water Products pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Kubota pays out 15.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Mueller Water Products pays out 19.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Mueller Water Products has raised its dividend for 10 consecutive years. Kubota is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

Kubota has a beta of 0.95, indicating that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mueller Water Products has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Kubota and Mueller Water Products, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kubota	0	0	0	2	4.00
Mueller Water Products	1	2	2	0	2.20

Mueller Water Products has a consensus price target of $30.20, indicating a potential upside of 26.31%. Given Mueller Water Products’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Mueller Water Products is more favorable than Kubota.

Profitability

This table compares Kubota and Mueller Water Products’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kubota	8.18%	9.17%	4.26%
Mueller Water Products	15.02%	23.55%	13.12%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Kubota and Mueller Water Products”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kubota	$20.19 billion	1.09	$1.25 billion	$7.59	12.75
Mueller Water Products	$1.48 billion	2.52	$191.70 million	$1.41	16.96

Kubota has higher revenue and earnings than Mueller Water Products. Kubota is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Mueller Water Products, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Mueller Water Products beats Kubota on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Kubota

Kubota Corporation manufactures and sells agricultural and construction machinery in Japan, North America, Europe, Asia, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Farm & Machinery, Water & Environment, and Others. The Farm & Machinery segment offers tractors, power tillers, combine harvesters, rice transplanters, turf equipment, utility vehicles, other agricultural machinery, implements, attachments, post-harvest machinery, vegetable production equipment, intermediate management machine, and other equipment; cooperative drying, rice seedling, and gardening facilities; scales, weighing and measuring control systems, and air purifier; engines for farm equipment, construction machinery, industrial machinery, and generators; and mini excavators, wheel and skid steer loaders, compact track loaders, and other construction machinery related products. Its Water & Environment segment provides ductile iron pipes, synthetic pipes, valves, and single stack drain fittings, as well as design and construction services; reformer and cracking tubes, hearth rolls, TXAX materials, and spiral steel pipes; air-conditioning equipment; wastewater treatment equipment and plants, pumps and pump plants, membrane solutions, wastewater purification plants, night-soil treatment plants, waste incinerating and meltingplants, waste shredding and sorting plants, flue gas desulfurization apparatus, membrane methane fermentation plants, wastewater treatment plant, and valves. The Others segment offers logistics services; and roofing and exterior wall materials. It also engages in the underwriting of non-life insurance, retail financing, finance leasing, maintenance, security guarding, and facility management services; and import and export of components for farm equipment, engines, and construction machinery. It serves customers through a network of dealers. Kubota Corporation was founded in 1890 and is headquartered in Osaka, Japan.

About Mueller Water Products

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. The Water Flow Solutions segment provides valves for water systems, such as iron gate, butterfly, tapping, check, knife, plug, and ball valves, which are used to control distribution and transmission of potable water and non-potable water, as well as in water transmission or distribution, water treatment facilities, or industrial applications. It also offers service brass products. The Water Management Solutions segment offers dry-barrel and wet-barrel fire hydrants for water infrastructure development; fire protection systems, and water infrastructure repair and replacement projects; pipe repair products, such as couplings, grips, and clamps used to repair leaks; residential, fire line, and commercial water metering products, systems, and services; water leak detection and pipe condition assessment products and services; machines and tools for tapping, drilling, extracting, installing, and stopping-off; gas valve products for use in gas distribution systems; and intelligent water solutions, including pressure control valves, advanced pressure management, network analytics, event management, and date logging. It sells its products under the Canada Valve, Centurion, Ez-Max, Hydro Gate, Hydro-Guard, HYMAX, HYMAX VERSA, Jones, Krausz, Milliken, Mueller, Pratt, Pratt Industrial, Repamax, Repaflex, Singer, Echologics, Echoshore, ePulse, Hersey, LeakFinderRT, LeakFinderST, LeakListener, LeakTuner, Mi.Echo, Mi.Net, Mueller Systems, Sentryx, and U.S. Pipe Valve and Hydrant brands. Mueller Water Products, Inc. was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.