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The Gibson family have farmed merino sheep at Malvern Downs in Central Otago since 1924. PHOTOS: ODT FILES / SUPPLIED / SALLY RAE The Gibson family, of Malvern Downs, marked 100 years on the Tarras property with a celebration at the weekend. Rural editor Sally Rae talks to remarkable nonagenarian Bill Gibson about the tenure. He is without doubt the elder statesman of the merino industry. At 96 and as sharp as the proverbial tack, the gentleman that is Bill Gibson reflects that he has been lucky. But in return, the fine-wool industry has been fortunate to have such a passionate and respected ambassador for the breed. On Saturday, Bill returned to his old home Malvern Downs, now run by his son Robbie, to celebrate the family’s centennial on the Tarras property. The milestone was marked with a gathering of family, friends and those with connections to the farming operation which is synonymous with quality merino sheep. The many prize ribbons won over the years by Malvern Downs merinos were on display, reflecting the successes in the show ring. Reflecting on the centennial, both father and son paid tribute to their respective mother and grandmother, saying without her the property might not have remained in Gibson family ownership. While the official anniversary was in April this year, that was a busy time but Robbie Gibson said they got thinking about it and decided it was an occasion worth celebrating. And as Bill Gibson began sorting through old photographs and memorabilia at his Wānaka home, his enthusiasm for such an event became infectious. Malvern Downs, near the Tarras township, was part of the massive Morven Hills station, in the Lindis Pass, until 1880 when it was subdivided and owned by John McRae. In 1910, R. K. Smith — who had managed Morven Hills since 1906 — bought the property which was then known as Beauly Farm. It was renamed Malvern Downs by his wife Elizabeth. He owned large tracts of land in the district but sold it all in 1924. Hector Gibson — Bill’s father — had previously bought Morven Hills with his friend and mustering mate George Henderson in 1916, the pair then promptly went off to serve in World War 1. Both returned from the war. Hector married in 1925 but, 13 years later, his wife Eileen was widowed when he died from a blood clot. As well as caring for two children — Bill was 9 when his father died — she cooked for three men without electricity and had a large landholding with a huge mortgage. "When my father died, she could have got up, sold the two properties and moved away to town and I’d be sweeping the streets today," Bill said. "She could have come out of it but thank God she hung on and that’s why we’re here today." Managers were employed and there was one who Bill remembered as being very kind but knew nothing about stud merinos. The oldest merino stud in Otago, Malvern Downs was established by Hector in 1924 with the purchase of 204 ewes, 14 ewe lambs, 57 ram lambs and three rams from R. K. Smith. Bill came home from school, admitting he also knew nothing about stud merinos, and the manager allowed him to mate the ewes at Malvern Downs in 1945. He continued to mate the ewes every year until Robbie took over in 1980. In 1949, Bill went to Australia to work as a jackaroo at Boonoke, near Narrandera in southern New South Wales. It was the world’s largest merino stud, selling 10,500 rams at that time. It was a great experience for the young farmer, particularly given the scale and the prominence of the operation. Bill recalled loading a road-train with other jackaroos with 1700 rams. "From a little dunghill here in Tarras, to that, was so different," he said. It was also where he encountered poll merino sheep. The story was that stud master Otway Falkiner — one of Australia’s great sheep breeders — returned from the Royal Sydney Show in 1935 and commented that if horns could be bred off Hereford cattle, then he could breed them off merino rams. Returning to New Zealand, Bill wrote to Mr Falkiner in 1950, wanting to buy a ram. He still has the type-written reply, in which the great studmaster said how he had picked "a very nice sheep" to be shipped to New Zealand and transported on to Tarras. He added they were having a very good season at Boonoke, having broken all previous records — selling 12,041 rams for the 12 months. While their wool sold well, they had struck a bad sale at Melbourne and the price had gone up about 25% since. They had 2500 bales of wool and must have lost about £75,000 (about $NZ5.1m today) — "a nice cheque" as he wrote. As it was, they got paid £144,000. That year, Bill registered New Zealand’s first poll merino stud, the start of poll merinos in the country. He recalled how it was a "pretty hard road to hoe" to start with as most high country farmers looked at a merino — "and he had to have horns". But now there were more poll studs than horned — "the pendulum has swung", he said. Bill took over running Malvern Downs in 1953, the same year he married Frances (nee Jenkins), his wife of 71 years who was brought up on nearby Cluden Station. His late sister Madge married Max Snow and the couple ran Morven Hills. Rams had been bred at Malvern Downs before the property was known as Malvern Downs and Bill recalled how he was "so determined" to continue breeding sheep because his father did it before him. Despite being young when his father died, he did have some memories of Hector and recalled that he was a "bit of a trick". He had a dog called Pierrot and in his own decades as secretary of the Tarras Collie Club, Bill had never heard of a dog called that. He also had a ram called Bushwhacker. It was a pity his father had not lived longer; his son believed the war caught up on him. He had bad legs, no doubt caused by being in the trenches in France. The Gibson family’s association with the famed Merryville merino stud in Australia dated back to Bill’s trip across the Tasman in 1949. In 1954, Bill wrote to Walter Merriman — knighted that same year for his services to the Australian wool industry — and described what sort of ram he would like to buy. The ram duly arrived and was named Sir Frances, after his wife. Sir Walter started the Merryville stud in 1903 with a small flock of sheep from the Ravensworth stud founded by his father George in 1865. The Merryville sheep were a type that did well in Otago and the stud’s bloodlines remained in New Zealand. Wal Merriman — grandson of Sir Walter — attended the Malvern Downs celebration at the weekend. Bill’s accolades in the sector have been many — from a Royal Agricultural Society medal to an MBE for services to agriculture and the merino industry, and the Heather Perriam Memorial Trophy He has judged five times in Australia but one of his greatest highlights was being asked to judge at the World Merino Conference in South Africa. Another highlight was to win all three merino ram championships — for fine, medium and strong micron sheep — at The Christchurch Show in 1964, 1965 and 1969, the three-peat never being repeated since. While there was "a bit of work" involved in showing, Bill also had a lot of fun exhibiting his sheep and met a lot of people. "While you’re also all opposition ... at the end of the day, you go and have a beer with them. That, to me, is stud breeding," he said. "With showing, you take the good with the bad. Sometimes you win with a sheep you don’t expect, you’ve got to be able to take it if you get beaten." The Gibson family were stalwarts of the Wānaka A&P Show and Bill was delighted to see the enduring popularity of the show which draws thousands of visitors to the town every year. Bill acknowledged the young men who had worked at Malvern Downs over the years, arriving from studying at Lincoln and Telford. Then there was the South African lad whose father was a merino breeder who visited Malvern Downs and, prior to leaving, asked Bill if he would take his son for a season. The father later told Bill "I sent you a monkey and you sent me back a man". "I was very pleased with that," Bill reflected. From driving two horses pulling a mower when he first left school, to the later advances in technology, Bill had seen many changes during his life. One of his interests had been making walking sticks, using the horns from merinos. He made about 10 a year for 30 years and added to his own collection every time he went overseas. He was a life member of the Scottish Stick-Makers Association. The years on the farm had been "wonderful". "We had good years and bad years, just like any other farming" — and it had been a "great journey". "I’m a lucky fellow," he said. sally.rae@odt.co.nz
MISSOULA — As a matter of routine last spring, University of Montana graduate student Erin Dozhier would settle into their home office on the north end of Missoula and prepare for a barrage of questions about houseplants and parrots. The queries came from public school kids hundreds of miles away, their worlds temporarily connected to Dozhier’s through a version of Zoom often utilized by therapists for virtual counseling. Usually, Dozhier would start with their most tried-and-true strategy for building rapport with young clients. “Number one, if you want students to talk to you, ask them about their pets or show them your pet,” said Dozhier, whose parrot Alfie often made appearances in such sessions. Dozhier is one of a growing number of students from UM’s social work, school counseling and mental health counseling programs who have delivered such services for K-12 children in Montana’s far-flung rural districts. What began as an experimental effort to address the mental health side of school safety has, over the past five years, evolved into a fixture both for the university’s Safe Schools Center and for the small schools it serves. Dubbed VAST — short for Virtually Assisted School Teams — the program now boasts six grad students and 22 participating districts stretching from the Bitterroot Valley to the North Dakota border. The free counseling services VAST has made available to young Montanans highlight a growing focus among leaders across the state’s education continuum on student mental health. According to Montana’s latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 43% of responding high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless for two or more weeks in a row, and more than a quarter had seriously considered suicide — the highest annual rate since 1991. Educators often point to rising rates of youth anxiety and depression as a contributor to the steady decline in statewide academic performance, and for schools large and small, financial and hiring difficulties frequently stand in the way of providing robust mental health resources. Even outside the K-12 system, such support for students in Montana’s more rural communities may be dozens if not hundreds of miles away. For program leader Tammy Tolleson Knee, who serves as school support liaison for UM’s Safe Schools Center, the issues VAST was crafted to address have only become more pressing since the pandemic and speak to social and societal forces at work well beyond a school’s hallways. She told MTFP that as of this week, 53 K-12 students in Montana have been referred to the program for one-on-one counseling, with more than a dozen more referrals expected. “One of the great hardships for families is just what’s happening with the economy,” Tolleson Knee said. “And when families are stressed, kids become stressed.” Some districts, including in the northeast Montana town of Bainville, have been relying on VAST for years to meet the needs of their most vulnerable students. Other districts such as the Broadus Public Schools have only recently joined the program but are already reporting an impact. Broadus school counselor Dori Phillips told Montana Free Press that in the two months since the district formalized its participation, she’s already referred six students to one-on-one tele-counseling through VAST. “I don’t know where I would be without the help with those particular kiddos,” Phillips said. When Dan Lee first envisioned the VAST program in 2019, he saw tele-counseling as the preventative prong in a larger effort to address student safety. As then-head of UM’s Safe Schools Center, Lee heard time and again from educators that shortages of mental health professionals in rural communities posed a significant hurdle to getting children the help they needed before their personal struggles reached a critical level. The challenge, Lee told MTFP, was in developing an initiative that didn’t reinforce misconceptions — tied to school shootings — about mental health as a public safety concern. “One of the concerns we had was we can’t criminalize mental health,” said Lee, now the dean of UM’s College of Education, which houses the campus’ various counseling programs as well as the Safe Schools Center. “We can’t say if you are depressed, you are a threat. You can’t do that. When you’re depressed, it doesn’t mean you’re a threat to anybody. So we didn’t like the idea of classifying mental illness as a threat to schools because it’s not.” VAST, which kicked off during the 2020-21 academic year with two participating schools, fit neatly into a collection of services Lee and his cohorts developed for Montana schools, providing a compassion-centric therapeutic tool to complement the center’s more site-specific threat assessments, staff training and its 24/7 school safety hotline. At the same time, Lee said, the initiative began giving UM students greater access to the clinical hours needed to obtain their degrees and licenses, hours that can be difficult to get. “We can’t say if you are depressed, you are a threat. You can’t do that. When you’re depressed, it doesn’t mean you’re a threat to anybody.” In the years since, VAST has increasingly filled a void in rural communities with participating schools. Tolleson Knee recalled the story of one student who had previously received counseling in a community an hour away from home, until the family’s finances could no longer sustain the costs of travel and treatment. Her colleague, Safe Schools Center Director Emily Sallee, added that even if families are able to sustain private mental health services, outside professionals may not be effective at coordinating with in-school staff. By comparison, VAST relies on teachers and school counselors — the latter a state-mandated position in public schools — to coordinate with UM-side practitioners and keep them informed about any developments in a student’s life that may go unseen or unacknowledged in a tele-counseling session. “There’s this huge wraparound piece that’s often missing when kids are accessing counseling outside of schools,” Sallee said, “and it’s a huge part of how all these people can be supporting this kiddo, not just the counselor.” For Deborah Ith, the team-centered aspect of the program has been an important facet of her VAST experience this fall. A doctoral student in UM’s school psychology program, Ith currently has three teenage students in rural schools that she meets with remotely at least once a week via a paid, HIPAA-compliant version of Zoom. Their struggles have primarily been interpersonal ones, Ith said, and on a couple of occasions have risen to the level that Ith has reached out to the school counselor and parents to develop a group plan of support. “Sometimes that means trying to support parents because that’s really scary,” Ith continued. “When you’re a parent and you have somebody call you up and be like, ‘Hey, this came up, this is going on, you need to know about it, this is what we talked about as a way to support and this is what you can do to support them,’ that’s really hard to hear sometimes.” Even as VAST participants continue to provide such day-to-day services for a growing collection of rural schools, Tolleson Knee is identifying opportunities to expand the program’s offerings even further. She told MTFP that starting this spring, the Safe Schools Center plans to try out a hybrid version of VAST in one Bitterroot Valley school that will include a monthly in-person counseling session for students on top of three monthly tele-counseling sessions. The University of Montana isn’t alone in recognizing the challenges rural schools face in providing adequate mental health support for their students. The nonprofit Montana Small Schools Alliance has developed its own 24/7 crisis support app, which mental health resources director Cindy Fouhy said has so far been accessed by more than 20,000 students across the state. In addition, the alliance — in partnership with the Montana Professional Learning Collaborative — has developed a free tele-counseling model of its own. Like VAST, the focus is primarily on Montana’s smallest and most resource-starved schools where dedicated one-on-one intervention simply isn’t available. “You go to these small schools and they may not even have a certified counselor,” Fouhy said. “If they do, he or she is also teaching classes and doing 500 other things.” The factors that make mental health support in rural communities so difficult can also fuel the very stressors that necessitate such support in the first place. Consider Broadus, a town of fewer than 500 people anchored to the vast prairie of southeastern Montana. The local K-12 school boasts a student population of roughly 225, some of whom travel up to 70 miles one way to attend Power River County’s sole high school. According to data from the Office of Public Instruction, more than a third of the student population is classified as economically disadvantaged. Politics, drought, alcohol use — there are a lot of issues influencing local families, said Broadus school counselor Dori Phillips, and those pressures “trickle to our students.” Professional help is more than 80 miles away in every direction. Stress and geographic isolation are exacerbated by a persistent social stigma around seeking mental health treatment, one that Phillips has struggled, family by individual family, to overcome. “Getting our families to commit to taking their kids for help is almost impossible in many cases,” Phillips said. “I have very few students on my caseload. I think there’s three total that actually travel out of town to get help.” Broadus Public Schools used to offer more robust mental health services for students through the state-sponsored Comprehensive School and Community Treatment program, or CSCT. But the district’s access dried up about two years ago following legislative changes to how services were administered, and the availability of a part-time school psychologist has largely served during emergencies or as a backup on days when Phillips isn’t working. So when Phillips heard of VAST in a statewide association email, she instantly saw the prospect of free, in-school tele-counseling as a carrot for local families. “I can work with kids on friendship issues, I can help kids if they’re having trouble managing homework or learning organizational skills, those types of things,” said Phillips, whose school counseling license is distinct from the licenses granted to clinical therapists. “But when you have a family who deals with the loss of a parent or a caregiver, you have a family who goes through even a nasty divorce or a child who has a lot of trauma from their early years, those are things that they really need a private counselor for. Someone who’s licensed and knows how to work with kids.” In just two months, the number of Broadus students receiving tele-counseling services through VAST has grown to six, and Phillips said she’s working to connect three more students with the program. “Getting our families to commit to taking their kids for help is almost impossible in many cases.” A few hundred miles to the north, Bainville school counselor Amy Iversen said the number of students she’s referred to VAST has grown from two students in 2022 to seven last school year. She described the ag-and-oil community as similarly small, with 172 students across all grades, and similarly isolated, with the closest larger population center lying across the state line in Williston, North Dakota. For Iversen, UM’s program came along at a critical time for several students who showed signs of behavioral issues or depression and whose families lacked the resources for private counseling. “They can come in and talk to me about it, but then you know what? They’re going to see me again in class in two days and they’re going to be like, ‘Oh, crap, is she going to say something?’” Iversen said. “They probably don’t want me to know all their secrets. I’ve got kids in the school, some of them are friends with my own kids. It’s awkward for them, so when you’re in a small school, it helps with that confidentiality.” In some cases, parents have commented to Iversen on a noticeable difference in their child’s confidence, self-esteem or coping skills as a result of ongoing therapy. And while school-based counseling has its limits — like the services provided by traditional school counselors, VAST is not offered during the summer break — Iversen hopes the mental health skills students glean during the school year can see them through the off months. “That’s better than not getting anything,” Iversen said. Dozhier, the UM grad student, didn’t have to look much further than their own childhood in a small Oregon timber town to understand the issues facing the young Montana clients they counseled last spring. Kids are smarter and more observant than people think, Dozhier said, which means when pressures like joblessness, food insecurity or substance abuse weigh on a household, children pick up on it. They may act out or isolate themselves, sometimes without knowing why, and the last thing such a student can focus on is learning. “Their thinking brains are off,” Dozhier said. Dozhier’s parrot Alfie may help break the ice, but helping a child navigate issues they may not fully understand requires more than just talking about pets and plants. In sessions with VAST, Dozhier said they primarily utilize a style of counseling called play therapy, allowing a student to play freely with whatever toys they choose. Their actions may give the counselor some subtle insight into what’s going on in their lives, Dozhier said. Fighting between toys could, for example, be indicative of difficult relationships with siblings or other family members and help guide a counselor’s questions. “Even though it looks like play, we find that pertinent themes come up in play, even without specifically saying, ‘Hey, how’s your relationship with your brother?’” Dozhier said. “It’s almost like watching a theater play that doesn’t have a lot of words and kind of using that to draw conclusions.” Ith’s work with older students this fall has also underscored the added stress coming to age in a smaller community can place on a 21st-century teen. She acknowledges that the rural nature of the schools she serves through VAST can help reinforce a sense of support, giving some students an awareness that others around them recognize the experiences they’re going through. But it’s a “double-edged sword,” she said, one that can make it difficult to find new peer groups or move past incidents of bullying. At the Montana Small Schools Alliance, Fouhy notes that social media and technology can exacerbate such issues in ways older generations may not fully understand. “The kids can’t get away from stressors,” Fouhy said. “In the 80s, kids could go home and if they had to fight at school, they wouldn’t have to worry about it again ’til Monday. But now it just goes on and on, and the conflict and the stress that’s just in their pocket is significant.” Remote delivery of the one-on-one services that can help students process such situations does pose challenges, and leaders at VAST are quick to note that the program isn’t a solution for budgetary shortfalls or hiring challenges. Dozhier and Ith both credit the effectiveness of their work to individuals in the communities they’ve served — school counselors, teachers, parents. Tele-counseling initiatives haven’t sought to replace those voices but rather to create oases in Montana’s rural desert of outside mental health services, and Tolleson Knee has heard from past participants that the anonymity of therapy was a key motivator. “When you do live in those small communities, it’s just so hard to be objective,” Tolleson Knee said. “I heard students and family saying it was so nice to know we weren’t going to like have this intense session where we’re talking about really personal stuff and then run into [the counselor] in the grocery store.” The experience of meeting such a need fits well with Dozhier’s long-term professional goal of returning to rural Oregon as a counselor, and they are slated to return to the VAST cohort of practitioners-in-training this spring as it branches into in-person service. But while the program is great at doing what it’s doing, Dozhier recognizes even private counseling has its limits. A few sessions with a therapist won’t erase the issues that arise for a child when, say, a parent is overworked, stretched thin and struggling just to put food on the table. When it comes to improving mental health, Dozhier said, the challenge is far more systematic than one school, one university or one counselor can handle alone. “The answer to all of this kid’s woes is maybe not counseling for a year,” Dozhier said. “The answer maybe to so many of these woes would be to reduce stress on the family, and that’s something that our systems aren’t set up to do.” This story was originally published by Montana Free Press at montanafreepress.org . You can read the original story here . Alex Sakariassen is a 2008 graduate of the University of Montana's School of Journalism, where he worked for four years at the Montana Kaimin student newspaper and cut his journalistic teeth as a paid news intern for the Choteau Acantha for two summers. After obtaining his bachelor's degree in journalism and history, Sakariassen spent nearly 10 years covering environmental issues and state and federal politics for the alternative newsweekly Missoula Independent. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!PTA can but won't block VPNs, says telecom regulator chief
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Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her bid for a second term this month, despite strong backing from union members. They're a key part of the Democratic base but are gravitating in the Trump era toward a Republican Party traditionally allied with business interests. Forecasts warn of possible winter storms across US during Thanksgiving week WINDSOR, Calif. (AP) — Forecasters in the U.S. have warned of another round of winter weather that could complicate travel leading up to Thanksgiving. California is bracing for more snow and rain this weekend while still grappling with some flooding and small landslides from a previous storm. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for California's Sierra Nevada through Tuesday, with heavy snow expected at high elevations. Thousands remained without power in the Seattle area on Saturday after a “bomb cyclone” storm system hit the West Coast earlier in the week, killing two people. Parts of the Northeast and Appalachia also began the weekend with heavy precipitation. Pakistan partially stops mobile and internet services ahead of pro-Imran Khan protest ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan has suspended mobile and internet services “in areas with security concerns” as supporters of imprisoned former premier Imran Khan gear up for a protest in the capital. The government and Interior Ministry made the announcement on X, which is banned in Pakistan. Sunday's protest is to demand Khan's release. He has been in prison for more than a year but remains popular. His supporters rely heavily on social media and messaging apps to coordinate with each other. Pakistan has already sealed off Islamabad and shut down major roads and highways connecting the city with Khan's power bases. Here's what to know about the new funding deal that countries agreed to at UN climate talks BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — In the wee hours Sunday at the United Nations climate talks, countries from around the world reached an agreement on how rich countries can cough up the funds to support poor countries in the face of climate change. But it’s a far-from-perfect arrangement, with many parties still unsatisfied but hopeful that the deal will be a step in the right direction. Japan holds Sado mines memorial despite South Korean boycott amid lingering historical tensions SADO, Japan (AP) — Japan has held a memorial ceremony near the Sado Island Gold Mines despite a last-minute boycott of the event by South Korea that highlighted tensions between the neighbors over the issue of Korean forced laborers at the site before and during World War II. 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Woolery, with his matinee idol looks, coiffed hair and ease with witty banter, was inducted into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007 and earned a daytime Emmy nomination in 1978. He teamed up with Young for the podcast “Blunt Force Truth” and became a full supporter Donald Trump.
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Jennison Associates LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Mueller Water Products, Inc. ( NYSE:MWA – Free Report ) during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 68,543 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,487,000. A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MWA. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Mueller Water Products during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new position in Mueller Water Products during the second quarter valued at $72,000. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 44.2% in the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,757 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $83,000 after acquiring an additional 1,457 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products by 434.6% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,892 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $106,000 after acquiring an additional 3,977 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP boosted its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 341.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 5,632 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $101,000 after purchasing an additional 4,355 shares during the period. 91.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. Analyst Ratings Changes Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Mueller Water Products from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $27.00 price target (up from $26.00) on shares of Mueller Water Products in a research note on Friday, November 8th. TD Cowen downgraded Mueller Water Products from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Mueller Water Products from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.20. Insider Activity at Mueller Water Products In other news, Director Lydia W. Thomas sold 10,791 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.40, for a total value of $263,300.40. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 136,405 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,328,282. This trade represents a 7.33 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink . 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders. Mueller Water Products Trading Up 0.8 % Shares of NYSE MWA opened at $25.18 on Friday. Mueller Water Products, Inc. has a twelve month low of $13.08 and a twelve month high of $26.28. The firm has a market cap of $3.93 billion, a PE ratio of 34.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.34. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.39. The company has a quick ratio of 2.31, a current ratio of 3.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Mueller Water Products ( NYSE:MWA – Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.22. Mueller Water Products had a return on equity of 19.38% and a net margin of 8.82%. The firm had revenue of $348.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $324.80 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.19 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Mueller Water Products, Inc. will post 1.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Mueller Water Products Increases Dividend The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a dividend of $0.067 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This is an increase from Mueller Water Products’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.27 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.06%. Mueller Water Products’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.99%. Mueller Water Products Profile ( Free Report ) Mueller Water Products, Inc manufactures and markets products and services for the transmission, distribution, and measurement of water used by municipalities, and the residential and non-residential construction industries in the United States, Israel, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Water Flow Solutions and Water Management Solutions. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MWA? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Mueller Water Products, Inc. ( NYSE:MWA – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for Mueller Water Products Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Mueller Water Products and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .
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Book Review: 'The Rivals' is Jane Pek’s fine new mystery novel of online dating, love and deathTo gain an edge, this is what you need to know today. An enlarged chart of Microsoft Corp . MSFT Note the following: This article is about the big picture, not an individual stock. The chart of MSFT stock is being used to illustrate the point. The chart shows MSFT stock has climbed in December so far. The chart shows support and resistance zones for MSFT. RSI on the chart shows MSFT stock is overbought. Overbought stocks are susceptible to a pullback. The Arora Report previously shared with readers a major milestone in AI progress – human-like reasoning capabilities using chain link thinking in Model 4o from OpenAI. ChatGPT-4o is a large language model. In further AI progress, Microsoft has introduced Phi-4. Phi-4 is a small language model that outperforms GPT-4o in certain mathematical reasoning. Phi-4 is only a fraction of the size of GPT-4o. It appears that Phi-4 can do better in solving certain math problems compared to its teacher model GPT-4o. Also of note is that Microsoft trained Phi-4 mostly on synthetic data. The foregoing is important for investors as investors need to get ahead of the curve. In The Arora Report analysis, Phi-4 challenges the present belief that bigger is better. In The Arora Report analysis, small language models such as Phi-4 have a very bright future. There is a fortune to be made in AI between now and 2030. However, it will not be in a straight line. At times, it will be treacherous. There is excitement in the stock market this morning as it was announced Friday after the close that AI software company Palantir Technologies Inc PLTR and big bitcoin holder MicroStrategy Inc MSTR are being added to the Nasdaq 100. The Arora Report has previously written that one of the things Trump can do to reduce inflation from his policies is to attract foreign investment to the U.S. In the first sign of success for Trump, Japan's SoftBank Group Corp – ADR SFTBY CEO Masayoshi Son will announce at Mar-a-Largo a $100B investment in the U.S. over the next four years. There is also buying in the early trade as the market believes it is a certainty that the Fed will cut interest rates this week in spite of the data not supporting such a rate cut. Markets in the U.S. are not being impacted by weakness in Europe and Asia as there was powerful pumping of stocks in the media over the weekend. Retail investors tend to be influenced by the weekend pump and buy on Monday morning. Moody's has cut France's credit rating. French stocks and bonds are falling. Markets all across the globe are being negatively impacted by weak retail sales data in China. Retail sales in China came at 3.0% year-over-year vs 4.8% consensus. Concern is building that the Chinese consumer is not spending in spite of stimulus measures by the government. In The Arora Report analysis, investors should note the sharp contrast between U.S. consumers and Chinese consumers at this time. U.S. consumers are on a buying binge. Chinese consumers are holding back and are focused on savings. In the early trade, money flows are positive in Amazon.com, Inc. , Alphabet Inc Class C , Meta Platforms Inc , NVIDIA Corp , and Tesla Inc . In the early trade, money flows are neutral in Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp MSFT . In the early trade, money flows are positive in SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY and Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 QQQ . Investors can gain an edge by knowing money flows in SPY and QQQ. Investors can get a bigger edge by knowing when smart money is buying stocks, gold, and oil. The most popular ETF for gold is SPDR Gold Trust GLD . The most popular ETF for silver is iShares Silver Trust SLV . The most popular ETF for oil is United States Oil ETF USO . Over the weekend, Bitcoin BTC/USD ran over $106,000 on a rumor that Trump will announce the bitcoin reserve on day 1. It is important for investors to look ahead and not in the rearview mirror. The proprietary protection band from The Arora Report is very popular. The protection band puts all of the data, all of the indicators, all of the news, all of the crosscurrents, all of the models, and all of the analysis in an analytical framework that is easily actionable by investors. Consider continuing to hold good, very long term, existing positions. Based on individual risk preference, consider holding Consider continuing to hold good, very long term, existing positions. Based on individual risk preference, consider a protection band consisting of cash or Treasury bills or short-term tactical trades as well as short to medium term hedges and short term hedges. This is a good way to protect yourself and participate in the upside at the same time. You can determine your protection bands by adding cash to hedges. The high band of the protection is appropriate for those who are older or conservative. The low band of the protection is appropriate for those who are younger or aggressive. If you do not hedge, the total cash level should be more than stated above but significantly less than cash plus hedges. A protection band of 0% would be very bullish and would indicate full investment with 0% in cash. A protection band of 100% would be very bearish and would indicate a need for aggressive protection with cash and hedges or aggressive short selling. It is worth reminding that you cannot take advantage of new upcoming opportunities if you are not holding enough cash. When adjusting hedge levels, consider adjusting partial stop quantities for stock positions (non ETF); consider using wider stops on remaining quantities and also allowing more room for high beta stocks. High beta stocks are the ones that move more than the market. Probability based risk reward adjusted for inflation does not favor long duration strategic bond allocation at this time. Those who want to stick to traditional 60% allocation to stocks and 40% to bonds may consider focusing on only high quality bonds and bonds of five year duration or less. Those willing to bring sophistication to their investing may consider using bond ETFs as tactical positions and not strategic positions at this time. The Arora Report is known for its accurate calls. The Arora Report correctly called the big artificial intelligence rally before anyone else, the new bull market of 2023, the bear market of 2022, new stock market highs right after the virus low in 2020, the virus drop in 2020, the DJIA rally to 30,000 when it was trading at 16,000, the start of a mega bull market in 2009, and the financial crash of 2008. Please click here to sign up for a free forever Generate Wealth Newsletter . © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Amazon pillow 'changes lives', reduces snoring and stops neck painFOX Business' Cheryl Casone joins 'Fox & Friends First' to discuss the backlash in response to Jaguar's 'woke' rebrand. FIRST ON FOX: Conservative watchdog group, America First Legal (AFL) launched a new initiative Thursday to help parents protect their children from what it describes as "woke leftist teachings in K-12 schools, colleges, and universities." "For the past four years, public schools have been indoctrinating children with radical racist, antisemitic, and transgender ideologies," Ian Prior, AFL's senior advisor said in a statement. "As these schools have blatantly violated civil rights law, the Biden Administration worked hand in glove to federalize the illegal practices. That ends in 2025, as the incoming administration has made clear that it will crack down on these woke schools that abuse their federal funds to implement insane ideologies that hurt children." The newly unveiled "Parents’ Rights Toolkit" provides resources and guidance for families looking to challenge policies they believe are discriminatory or harmful, including those that involve race and gender issues, AFL said in a news release. DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKER RANTS ABOUT 'THE WHITE MAN’ DURING HEARING ON THE DISMANTLE DEI ACT Criticism over workplace DEI commitments was bolstered following last year's affirmative action ruling from the Supreme Court that barred racial preferences in university admissions. The toolkit offers template letters to help parents file complaints with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, addressing potential violations of civil rights protections under Title IX, Title VI, and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA). AFL, which was founded by Stephen Miller and other former Trump administration officials, intends for the toolkit to also serve as a roadmap for action for the incoming Trump administration. JOHNSON BLASTS DEM ACCUSATIONS HE VOWED TO END OBAMACARE AS 'DISHONEST' The editor of Scientific American is no fan of President-elect Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) "AFL’s toolkit was created to help parents speak up for civil rights," AFL's news release said. "Now is the time for them to do — these claims will provide the incoming Trump administration with a critical roadmap for ending woke indoctrination and discrimination in our schools and colleges." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The toolkit comes amid a conservative wave of pushback against DEI policies . At a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, the "Dismantle DEI Act" was under discussion, a session during which Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, expressed her frustration. MIKE JOHNSON WINS REPUBLICAN SUPPORT TO BE HOUSE SPEAKER AGAIN AFTER TRUMP ENDORSEMENT Rep. Jasmine Crockett ranted about 'White men' while discussing a bill that seeks to remove DEI policies from the federal government. She concluded her remarks by claiming "companies with more diverse workforces are more likely to outperform their competitors." "Diversity works, and until you can show me data that says otherwise, I think that we need to go back to being a country that listens to experts and gets out of our feelings and recognizes again that racism is real in this country, and until we stop pretending that it's not, we will not solve the problems that we are consistently facing. And that will bring real unity that we seek when we're looking for a more perfect union," she said. Fox News Digital's Alexander Hall contributed to this report. Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate.