Short Interest in AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON) Drops By 6.7%

AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,540,000 shares, a drop of 6.7% from the December 15th total of 1,650,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 434,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.5 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of AAON from $102.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Sidoti downgraded shares of AAON from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $102.00 to $111.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of AAON from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Baird R W raised shares of AAON from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of AAON from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.00.

AAON Stock Performance

Shares of AAON stock opened at $130.18 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $10.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.35 and a beta of 0.87. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $129.02 and its 200 day moving average is $108.71. AAON has a 1 year low of $69.54 and a 1 year high of $144.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 3.06 and a quick ratio of 1.79.

AAON (NASDAQ:AAON) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The construction company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $327.25 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $315.80 million. AAON had a net margin of 15.78% and a return on equity of 24.98%. AAON’s revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.64 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AAON will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AAON Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. AAON’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.10%.

Insider Transactions at AAON

In other AAON news, VP Casey Kidwell sold 4,796 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.38, for a total transaction of $654,078.48. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 4,953 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $675,490.14. The trade was a 49.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Stephen E. Wakefield sold 5,362 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.99, for a total transaction of $702,368.38. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 4,558 shares in the company, valued at approximately $597,052.42. The trade was a 54.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 57,329 shares of company stock worth $7,663,726. Insiders own 18.55% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AAON

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of AAON by 39.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,866,746 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $201,310,000 after purchasing an additional 525,132 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of AAON by 212.3% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 656,552 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $57,278,000 after purchasing an additional 446,344 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AAON by 258.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 330,397 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $37,014,000 after purchasing an additional 238,308 shares during the period. Fred Alger Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AAON in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $15,700,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new position in shares of AAON in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $15,687,000. Institutional investors own 70.81% of the company’s stock.

About AAON

AAON, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in engineering, manufacturing, marketing, and selling air conditioning and heating equipment in the United States and Canada. The company operates through three segments: AAON Oklahoma, AAON Coil Products, and BASX. It offers rooftop units, data center cooling solutions, cleanroom systems, chillers, packaged outdoor mechanical rooms, air handling units, makeup air units, energy recovery units, condensing units, geothermal/water-source heat pumps, coils, and controls.