A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) Shares Sold by Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board reduced its position in A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) by 94.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,825 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 47,768 shares during the quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board’s holdings in A. O. Smith were worth $254,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Select Equity Group L.P. boosted its position in A. O. Smith by 11.6% in the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 3,852,467 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $315,055,000 after buying an additional 400,304 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of A. O. Smith by 3.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 72,856 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in A. O. Smith by 5.0% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,393,519 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $113,962,000 after purchasing an additional 66,933 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in A. O. Smith by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,194,731 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $97,708,000 after purchasing an additional 19,890 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its holdings in A. O. Smith by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,176,835 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $105,715,000 after purchasing an additional 21,094 shares during the period. 76.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AOS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on A. O. Smith from $92.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of A. O. Smith from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of A. O. Smith from $82.00 to $81.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. DA Davidson lowered A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, UBS Group raised A. O. Smith from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, A. O. Smith has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.71.

A. O. Smith Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE AOS opened at $73.44 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.17. A. O. Smith Co. has a 52-week low of $70.73 and a 52-week high of $92.44. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $79.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $81.85.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.82. The company 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that A. O. Smith Co. will post 3.78 EPS for the current year.

A. O. Smith Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were issued a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. This is a boost from A. O. Smith’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. A. O. Smith’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.