Badger Meter, Inc (NYSE:BMI) reported fiscal first-quarter 2024 sales growth of 23% year-on-year to $196.3 million, beating the consensus of $182.3 million.

EPS of $0.99 beat the consensus of $0.82. The stock price climbed after the results.

Utility water sales increased 29% year over year, reflecting continued customer adoption across its broad and expanding portfolio of smart water solutions, which encompasses its cellular AMI offering, including ORION Cellular endpoints and BEACON Software as a Service (SaaS) revenues, coupled with increased water meter volumes, including E-Series Ultrasonic meters.

Sales of flow instrumentation products declined 3% year over year, compared to a difficult prior-year comparison, which benefited from backlog conversion and improved supply chain dynamics.

The gross margin decreased by 16 basis points to 39.3%, reflecting the continued benefits of a favorable sales mix and higher volumes.

The operating margin improved 289 basis points to 18.6%.

The company held $199.3 million in cash and equivalents as of March 31, 2024, and generated $21.5 million in operating cash flow.

Badger Meter stock gained over 46% in the last 12 months. Investors can gain exposure to the stock via Tidal ETF Trust Newday Ocean Health ETF (NYSE:AHOY) and Invesco S&P SmallCap Information Technology ETF (NASDAQ:PSCT).

Price Action: BMI shares are up 15.8% at $177.24 on the last check Thursday.

Image: Kiều Trường from Pixabay