A. O. Smith Co. (AOS) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.32 on May 15th

A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 9th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of 0.32 per share by the industrial products company on Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th.

A. O. Smith has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.6% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 30 consecutive years. A. O. Smith has a dividend payout ratio of 29.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect A. O. Smith to earn $4.40 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.1%.

A. O. Smith Stock Performance

NYSE:AOS opened at $83.15 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $85.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $79.85. A. O. Smith has a 52-week low of $63.88 and a 52-week high of $89.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.24 billion, a PE ratio of 21.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.25.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $978.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $995.91 million. A. O. Smith had a return on equity of 30.94% and a net margin of 14.94%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.94 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that A. O. Smith will post 4.09 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AOS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of A. O. Smith in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Citigroup upped their price objective on A. O. Smith from $82.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on A. O. Smith from $86.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on A. O. Smith from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on A. O. Smith from $91.00 to $90.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, A. O. Smith has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at A. O. Smith

In other A. O. Smith news, Director Idelle K. Wolf sold 814 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $65,120.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 46,140 shares in the company, valued at $3,691,200. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other A. O. Smith news, Director Idelle K. Wolf sold 814 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $65,120.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 46,140 shares in the company, valued at $3,691,200. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Robert J. Heideman sold 9,890 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.63, for a total value of $836,990.70. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 9,455 shares in the company, valued at $800,176.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 95,631 shares of company stock worth $8,042,535 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 2.70% 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.