Badger Meter, Inc (NYSE:BMI) reported fiscal fourth-quarter 2023 sales growth of 24% year-on-year to $182.44 million, marginally beating the consensus of $182.32 million.
Utility water sales increased 28% Y/Y with solid growth across the broad suite of digital smart water solutions, including solid adoption of cellular AMI solutions, higher ORION Cellular endpoint and BEACON Software as a Service (SaaS) revenues, as well as increased meter volumes, notably E-Series Ultrasonic meters. Sales of flow instrumentation products were up slightly Y/Y.
The gross margin increased by 50 basis points to 39.2%, benefiting from higher volumes and structural positive sales mix trends.
The operating margin improved 230 basis points to 17.6%. EPS of $0.84 beat the consensus of $0.82.
The company held $191.8 million in cash and equivalents and generated $37.9 million in operating cash flow.
Chair and CEO Kenneth C. Bockhorst, stated, “For 2024 and beyond, we remain committed to the formula that has driven our success – focusing on our customers, offering innovative and differentiated technologies, and driving operational excellence. This proven blueprint, coupled with our resilient order pace, robust bid funnel and backlog, give us confidence in our ability to grow sales and earnings year-over-year.”
Price Action: BMI shares are down 7.16% at $141.41 on the last check Friday.
