Badger Meter (BMI) & Its Competitors Critical Comparison

Badger Meter (NYSE:BMI) is one of 376 public companies in the “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Badger Meter to related companies based on the strength of its risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Risk and Volatility

Badger Meter has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Badger Meter’s competitors have a beta of -0.32, indicating that their average share price is 132% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

89.0% of Badger Meter shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.5% of shares of all “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Badger Meter shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 16.4% of shares of all “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Badger Meter and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Badger Meter	1	5	6	0	2.42
Badger Meter Competitors	2048	7630	10467	668	2.47

Badger Meter currently has a consensus target price of $166.33, indicating a potential upside of 6.29%. As a group, “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies have a potential upside of 32.88%. Given Badger Meter’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Badger Meter has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Dividends

Badger Meter pays an annual dividend of $1.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Badger Meter pays out 40.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies pay a dividend yield of 1.9% and pay out 69.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Badger Meter has raised its dividend for 32 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Badger Meter and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Badger Meter	14.36%	18.49%	13.02%
Badger Meter Competitors	-139.91%	-19.77%	-5.96%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Badger Meter and its competitors revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Badger Meter	$881.24 million	$141.63 million	36.14
Badger Meter Competitors	$116.08 billion	$174.60 million	6.21

Badger Meter’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Badger Meter. Badger Meter is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Badger Meter competitors beat Badger Meter on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Badger Meter

Badger Meter, Inc. is a Milwaukee-based manufacturer of products and systems used to measure and manage water and other fluid flows. Founded in 1905, the company serves municipal water utilities as well as commercial and industrial customers. Its offerings include water meters, flow instrumentation and related communications technology that helps customers collect and analyze usage data. Badger Meter also provides water quality monitoring equipment and software for tracking water system performance and supporting operational decisions.