A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) Short Interest Update

A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) saw a large growth in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,150,000 shares, a growth of 6.7% from the December 31st total of 3,890,000 shares. Approximately 3.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,060,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.9 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of A. O. Smith from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group lowered their price target on A. O. Smith from $80.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on A. O. Smith from $88.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of A. O. Smith in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on A. O. Smith from $90.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $80.86.

Institutional Trading of A. O. Smith

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP boosted its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 214.9% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 359 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares during the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in A. O. Smith in the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC acquired a new position in shares of A. O. Smith during the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of A. O. Smith during the 3rd quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of A. O. Smith in the third quarter worth approximately $55,000. 76.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

A. O. Smith Stock Performance

A. O. Smith stock opened at $67.07 on Tuesday. A. O. Smith has a fifty-two week low of $65.53 and a fifty-two week high of $92.44. The company has a market capitalization of $9.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.48, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.17. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $70.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $77.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.55.

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

A. O. Smith Announces Dividend

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

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.