A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) Receives $83.17 Average Target Price from Analysts

A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $83.17.

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AOS. StockNews.com downgraded shares of A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of A. O. Smith from $85.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group raised A. O. Smith from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. DA Davidson downgraded A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on A. O. Smith from $91.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On A. O. Smith

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp boosted its position in A. O. Smith by 4.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,721,581 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $693,630,000 after purchasing an additional 299,766 shares during the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. raised its stake in shares of 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. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,586,905 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $321,348,000 after buying an additional 52,593 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in A. O. Smith by 3.9% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,302,659 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $206,848,000 after buying an additional 87,458 shares during the period. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC grew its position in A. O. Smith by 3.7% during the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,046,798 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $167,387,000 after buying an additional 72,856 shares during the period. 76.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

A. O. Smith Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AOS opened at $68.72 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.96 billion, a PE ratio of 18.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.16. 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 has a twelve month low of $68.07 and a twelve month high of $92.44. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $74.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $80.16.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.82. A. O. Smith had a return on equity of 30.09% and a net margin of 14.41%. The firm had revenue of $957.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $960.36 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that A. O. Smith will post 3.77 EPS for the current year.

A. O. Smith Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were given a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.98%. This is a boost from A. O. Smith’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. A. O. Smith’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.79%.

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.