A. O. Smith’s (AOS) Hold (C) Rating Reiterated at Weiss Ratings

Weiss Ratings reissued their hold (c) rating on shares of A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) in a research note published on Saturday morning,Weiss Ratings reports.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on AOS. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of A. O. Smith from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $88.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. DA Davidson cut A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on A. O. Smith from $91.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of A. O. Smith from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $80.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.14.

A. O. Smith Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:AOS opened at $71.87 on Friday. A. O. Smith has a one year low of $67.17 and a one year high of $92.44. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $71.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.91, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.82. A. O. Smith had a return on equity of 30.09% and a net margin of 14.41%. The company had revenue of $957.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $960.36 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that A. O. Smith will post 3.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

A. O. Smith Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.89%. A. O. Smith’s payout ratio is presently 35.79%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On A. O. Smith

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. bought a new position in shares of A. O. Smith during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Quarry LP lifted its position in A. O. Smith by 214.9% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 359 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares during the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of A. O. Smith in the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC bought a new stake in shares of A. O. Smith in the 3rd quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in shares of A. O. Smith during the 3rd quarter valued at about $43,000. 76.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.