A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) to Issue $0.34 Quarterly Dividend

A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 16th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of 0.34 per share by the industrial products company on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%.

A. O. Smith has raised its dividend by an average of 7.0% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 31 years. A. O. Smith has a dividend payout ratio of 30.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect A. O. Smith to earn $4.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 33.7%.

A. O. Smith Stock Up 0.7 %

A. O. Smith stock opened at $71.43 on Friday. A. O. Smith has a 52 week low of $67.17 and a 52 week high of $92.44. The stock has a market cap of $10.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.80, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.18. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $71.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82. The business had revenue of $957.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $960.36 million. A. O. Smith had a net margin of 14.41% and a return on equity of 30.09%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that A. O. Smith will post 3.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AOS has been the topic of several recent research reports. DA Davidson cut shares of A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Oppenheimer upgraded 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 report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of A. O. Smith from $91.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Citigroup decreased 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. Finally, StockNews.com lowered A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.14.

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.