Mueller Water Products: A Spin-off With Value

Whitney Tilson pens a good column in the Financial Times about finding value in spun-off companies. He mentions owning two, one of which I own and will be familiar to my regular readers: Mueller Water Products (MWA). I own both the A and B (MWA.B) shares.

Here's part of what Tilson says:

So what is Mueller worth? Using three different valuation methodologies – private market value, peer public company multiples and a sum-of-the-parts analysis, we think Mueller shares are worth in the mid-$20s, versus under $15 today. We think that is plenty cheap for a stable, high-quality business and have been buying aggressively at today’s prices.

Wilson also mentions CBS (CBS) in passing, though he doesn't say he owns it. I do and, unlike Mueller, it's been a winner so far. But both positions are still relatively new to the portfolio. So new that performance to this point is, well, pretty pointless.