A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eight research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $86.71.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AOS. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on A. O. Smith from $92.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of A. O. Smith from $82.00 to $81.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 26th. UBS Group upgraded shares of A. O. Smith from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $75.00 to $80.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson cut A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd.

A. O. Smith Stock Down 0.6 %

AOS stock opened at $75.89 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $82.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $83.14. The stock has a market cap of $11.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.66, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.15. A. O. Smith has a twelve month low of $69.17 and a twelve month high of $92.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82. A. O. Smith had a net margin of 14.41% and a return on equity of 30.09%. The firm had revenue of $957.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $960.36 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that A. O. Smith will post 3.78 EPS for the current year.

A. O. Smith Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st will be given a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. This is an increase from A. O. Smith’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. A. O. Smith’s payout ratio is currently 35.23%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Samuel M. Carver sold 14,705 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.00, for a total value of $1,191,105.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 2,399 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $194,319. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 2.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On A. O. Smith

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AOS. Select Equity Group L.P. increased its holdings in A. O. Smith by 11.6% during the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 3,852,467 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $315,055,000 after purchasing an additional 400,304 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,046,798 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $167,387,000 after purchasing an additional 72,856 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in shares of A. O. Smith by 5.0% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,393,519 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $113,962,000 after purchasing an additional 66,933 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in A. O. Smith by 1.7% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,194,731 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $97,708,000 after buying an additional 19,890 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in A. O. Smith by 2.6% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,075,913 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $87,988,000 after buying an additional 26,794 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

A. O. Smith Company Profile

A. O. Smith Corporation manufactures and markets residential and commercial gas and electric water heaters, boilers, heat pumps, tanks, and water treatment products in North America, China, Europe, and India. The company offers water heaters for residences, restaurants, hotels, office buildings, laundries, car washes, and small businesses; boilers for hospitals, schools, hotels, and other large commercial buildings, as well as homes, apartments, and condominiums; and water treatment products comprising point-of-entry water softeners, well water solutions, and whole-home water filtration products, and point-of-use carbon and reverse osmosis products for residences, restaurants, hotels, and offices.