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Piper Jaffray Downgrades Badger Meter (BMI) to Neutral; Lowers Estimates & PT

October 21, 2009 7:14 AM EDT
BMI Hot Sheet
Rating Summary:
    1 Buy, 5 Hold, 1 Sell

Rating Trend: = Flat

Today's Overall Ratings:
    Up: 0 | Down: 0 | New: 0
Piper Jaffray downgrades Badger Meter Inc. (NYSE: BMI) to Neutral. Price target lowered from $45 to $42.

Piper analyst says, "While we continue to believe it is a matter of "when" not "if" the stimulus funds will find their way to municipalities for water meter projects, we believe BMI shares are likely to trade sideways until visibility around the timing of sustained project activity improves. As a result, we are downgrading BMI shares to Neutral and would look for a more compelling entry point over the next 6-9 months. We are tempering our near-term estimates to reflect the push-out of meter upgrade projects in the utility segment and continued weakness in industrial, coupled with gross margin erosion. We are reducing our FY10 EPS estimate from $1.96 to $1.81, which is roughly flat to our FY09 estimate. We remain confident in the long-term water meter upgrade opportunity for BMI and believe that FY11 results will show meaningfully improved sales & profit growth."

To see more analyst ratings on BMI Click Here.

Badger Meter, Inc. engages in manufacturing and marketing flow measurement and control products for water utilities, municipalities, and industrial customers worldwide.

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