Advisory Alpha LLC Purchases 274 Shares of A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS)

Advisory Alpha LLC raised its stake in shares of A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) by 8.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,454 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 274 shares during the quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC’s holdings in A. O. Smith were worth $236,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of AOS. Sarasin & Partners LLP acquired a new stake in A. O. Smith during the 3rd quarter worth about $78,766,000. Select Equity Group L.P. grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 400,304 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its holdings in A. O. Smith by 92.4% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 761,410 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $68,397,000 after acquiring an additional 365,710 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in A. O. Smith by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,721,581 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $693,630,000 after acquiring an additional 299,766 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of A. O. Smith in the 3rd quarter valued at about $24,060,000. 76.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on AOS. UBS Group upgraded A. O. Smith from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research note 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 for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of A. O. Smith from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of A. O. Smith from $91.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised shares of A. O. Smith from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $88.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.14.

A. O. Smith Stock Up 0.6 %

A. O. Smith stock opened at $71.36 on Friday. A. O. Smith Co. has a 1-year low of $67.17 and a 1-year high of $92.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $71.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $78.02.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82. The firm had revenue of $957.80 million during 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 period in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. On average, analysts predict that A. O. Smith Co. will post 3.77 earnings per share for the current year.

A. O. Smith Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.91%. A. O. Smith’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.