Why Mueller Industries Stock Flopped in February

By Eric Volkman – Mar 8, 2026 at 7:38PM ESTKey PointsThe company had a mixed fourth quarter, beating revenue expectations but missing on profitability.It subsequently declared a generous 40% dividend raise, but that couldn't turn investor sentiment positive over the month.February wasn't a memorable month for many stocks on U.S. exchanges, and we can confidently assume Mueller Industries (MLI 1.98%) is happy it's now in the past. The company's shares lost more than 13% of their value over the period, on the back of a quarterly earnings miss. Even a monster dividend raise couldn't reverse the decline. A mixed final quarter of 2025 Mueller, a veteran industrial company that manufactures and sells metal and plastic components for a range of segments including refrigeration and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), published its final earnings release for 2025 at the start of February. Image source: Getty Images. The good news is that both net sales and net income in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) rose year over year. The top line expanded by more than 4% to over $962 million, easily exceeding the $962 million consensus among the few analysts tracking Mueller stock. The less-good news is that, while GAAP profitability saw a steeper (11%) rise to nearly $154 million ($1.38 per share), it was well under the average pundit projection. Collectively, the prognosticators were modeling net income of $1.67 per share. Management said that tariffs imposed by the Trump administration negatively affected its performance. Another drag was a dip in unit volumes affecting the company's copper and brass products. Higher net selling prices helped to mitigate this, however. Zooming out, Mueller didn't hesitate to mention that its key fundamentals in every quarter last year rose from the corresponding periods of 2024. It ended up posting the highest annual operating and net income figures in its long history. But stocks trade on the future, not the recent past. On a somewhat pessimistic note, the company quoted CEO Greg Christopher as saying that "although we do not expect market conditions to abruptly rebound in 2026, we nonetheless anticipate considerable improvements as the year progresses." As per its long-standing practice, Mueller did not provide specific financial guidance for the current quarter or for this year. ExpandNYSE: MLIMueller IndustriesToday's Change(-1.98%) $-2.31Current Price$114.65Key Data PointsMarket Cap$13BDay's Range$113.63 - $115.5752wk Range$66.84 - $139.29Volume61KAvg Vol848KGross Margin27.27%Dividend Yield0.87% A dandy of a dividend raise One of Mueller's actions following the earnings release was to announce that big dividend raise -- a bullish managerial move if ever there was one. The quarterly payout is getting a 40% lift, from $0.25 per share to $0.35. The enhanced dividend is to be paid on March 27 to investors of record as of March 13, and at the most recent closing share price, it would yield 1.2%. Mueller is always highly dependent on the prices of the materials in which it specializes (chiefly copper and brass), so its financials can be somewhat up-and-down, and hard to estimate. Regardless, it's a well-managed, consistently profitable company, and, what's more, it's active in segments (like HVAC) serving the white-hot data center market.Read NextJan 14, 2025 •By Matt Frankel, CFP2 Unbelievably Cheap Stocks You Can Buy Right NowJul 19, 2022 •By Matt DiLalloWhy Mueller Industries Stock Is Soaring TodayJan 29, 2020 •By Rich Smith3 Top Stocks That Aren't on Wall Street's RadarAbout the AuthorEric Volkman is a contributing Motley Fool finance and stock market analyst. Previously, Eric was an equities analyst at European investment bank Raiffeisen Capital and Investment. He’s also been a freelance finance writer since 1995. He studied at Susquehanna University.TMFVolkmanStocks MentionedMueller IndustriesNYSE: MLI$114.65(-1.98%)-$2.31*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.