A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) Receives $80.86 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $80.86.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of A. O. Smith in a research note on Saturday, March 22nd. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of A. O. Smith from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com raised shares of A. O. Smith from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group decreased their price target on A. O. Smith from $80.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on A. O. Smith from $88.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st.

A. O. Smith Price Performance

Shares of AOS opened at $66.98 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $67.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $73.08. A. O. Smith has a twelve month low of $64.55 and a twelve month high of $92.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.64 billion, a PE ratio of 18.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.18.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The industrial products company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by ($0.05). A. O. Smith had a net margin of 13.98% and a return on equity of 28.87%. Research analysts anticipate that A. O. Smith will post 3.76 earnings per share for the current year.

A. O. Smith Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were given a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.03%. A. O. Smith’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling at A. O. Smith

In other news, SVP Douglas Samuel Karge sold 419 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.65, for a total value of $27,507.35. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 2,749 shares in the company, valued at $180,471.85. This represents a 13.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Robert J. Heideman sold 1,026 shares of A. O. Smith stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.65, for a total value of $67,356.90. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 8,889 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $583,562.85. This represents a 10.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.76% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On A. O. Smith

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AOS. Fairtree Asset Management Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in A. O. Smith in the 4th quarter worth approximately $515,000. Mattson Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of A. O. Smith in the fourth quarter valued at $467,000. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH increased its stake in A. O. Smith by 52.9% in the fourth quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 3,496 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $255,000 after purchasing an additional 1,209 shares during the last quarter. Cim LLC lifted its position in A. O. Smith by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Cim LLC now owns 41,174 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,808,000 after buying an additional 518 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in A. O. Smith in the 4th quarter worth about $10,146,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

About A. O. Smith

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.