A.O. Smith Corp. (NYSE:AOS) Director Mark D. Smith sold 1,146 shares of A.O. Smith Corp. stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.76, for a total transaction of $107,448.96. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 54,850 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,142,736. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 29th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 27th.
Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of A.O. Smith Corp. from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $105.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $88.00 price target on shares of A.O. Smith Corp. in a research report on Friday, April 8th. Sterne Agee CRT reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of A.O. Smith Corp. in a research report on Monday, May 16th. Longbow Research assumed coverage on shares of A.O. Smith Corp. in a research report on Friday, June 17th. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. Finally, SunTrust Banks Inc. reduced their price target on shares of A.O. Smith Corp. from $103.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $86.43.
A.O. Smith Corp. (NYSE:AOS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 26th. The company reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.08. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.79 earnings per share. The business earned $667 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $696.69 million. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that A.O. Smith Corp. will post $3.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
A. O. Smith Corporation operates its business through two segments, which include North America and Rest of World. The Company’s Rest of World segment primarily comprises China, Europe and India. The Rest of World segment supplies water heaters to the residential market in China with a range of product offering, including electric, gas, gas tankless, heat pump and solar units, as well as combi boilers.
