Badger Meter profit and sales fall, missing Wall Street expectations

Badger Meter profit falls, misses expectations

MILWAUKEE — Badger Meter Inc. said Thursday that fourth-quarter profit fell 18 percent as customers of the automatic utility meter-reading manufacturer waited to see how much federal aid they would get to pay for infrastructure work.

The company said it was starting to see signs of slow improvement in orders, but they still lagged levels of a year ago.

The shares fell $1.04, or 2.8 percent, to $36.62 in regular trading, then dropped another $1.62, or 4.4 percent, to $35 in about an hour of extended trading after the report.

Badger said it earned $5.1 million, or 34 cents per share, in the fourth quarter, compared with $6.2 million, or 42 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell 16.6 percent, to $56.4 million.

Analysts expected the company to earn 37 cents per share on sales of $59.7 million.

For all of 2009, the company earned $34.2 million, or $2.28 per share, compared with $25.1 million, or $1.69 per share, in 2008. Sales fell 10.5 percent, to $250.3 million from $279.6 million.