A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) Given Hold (C) Rating at Weiss Ratings

Weiss Ratings reaffirmed their hold (c) rating on shares of A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) in a research report released on Saturday,Weiss Ratings reports.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on A. O. Smith from $91.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Oppenheimer raised shares of A. O. Smith from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $88.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. DA Davidson cut shares of A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of A. O. Smith from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $83.14.

A. O. Smith Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of AOS traded up $0.47 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $71.87. The stock had a trading volume of 1,285,710 shares, compared to its average volume of 842,383. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $71.23 and its 200 day moving average is $78.26. The firm has a market cap of $10.42 billion, a PE ratio of 18.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.02. A. O. Smith has a 1 year low of $67.17 and a 1 year high of $92.44.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.82 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $957.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $960.36 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that A. O. Smith will post 3.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

A. O. Smith Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.89%. A. O. Smith’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.79%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its position in A. O. Smith by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 16,533 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,128,000 after purchasing an additional 1,155 shares in the last quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of A. O. Smith during the fourth quarter valued at about $209,000. Advisory Alpha LLC lifted its position in shares of A. O. Smith by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 3,454 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $236,000 after buying an additional 274 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 59,654 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,069,000 after buying an additional 891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Perpetual Ltd grew its position in shares of A. O. Smith by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 118,624 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $8,091,000 after buying an additional 11,128 shares during the last quarter. 76.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.