Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, water infrastructure specialist Mueller Water Products
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Mueller's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Mueller facts
| Headquarters | Atlanta |
| Market Cap | $570.87 million |
| Industry | Industrial machinery |
| Trailing-12-Month Revenue | $1.34 billion |
| Management | CEO Gregory Hyland (since 2007) CFO Evan Hart (since 2008) |
| Return on Capital (Average, Past 3 Years) | 1.9% |
| Cash/Debt | $83.7 million / $692.2 million |
| Dividend Yield | 1.9% |
| Competitors |
Tyco International |
Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 97% of the 1,539 members who have rated Mueller believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include Lumiere33 and All-Star rws1773, who is ranked in the top 6% of our community.
Two months ago, Lumiere33 touched on the big wave working in Mueller's favor: "Reasonable post recession fundamentals. ... Water infrastructure should be a key growth sector for years to come, because of this, I can overlook the ugly current Debt/Equity ratio as an anomaly."
With a No. 1 or No. 2 market share in about 75% of its products, Mueller remains one of our community's favorite water infrastructure stocks. Currently, Mueller even trades at a PEG (0.8) discount to close rival Tyco (1.1), as well as other water plays like Aqua America
CAPS All-Star rws1773 dives deeper into the bull case:
Growing population and an aging infrastructure = huge potential profits for [Mueller]. Many municipalities continue to be reliant on parts of their water distribution infrastructures that in some cases are over 100 years old. Upgrades and increased efficiencies in our water distribution systems are required throughout the country to wring the last drop possible out of our water sources. Fresh, clean water will become an even more precious resource in the future, eventually surpassing oil as the liquid investment of choice. Companies such as [Mueller] will be able to capitalize on the increased demand as new treatment and distribution plants are built and existing infrastructure receives long overdue upgrades.
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