A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) Short Interest Update

A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,150,000 shares, an increase of 6.7% from the December 15th total of 3,890,000 shares. Approximately 3.5% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,060,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.9 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AOS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of A. O. Smith from $82.00 to $81.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup cut their price objective on A. O. Smith from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group raised 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 report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of A. O. Smith in a report on Saturday. Finally, Oppenheimer upgraded shares of A. O. Smith from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $88.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.14.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On A. O. Smith

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in A. O. Smith by 4.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,721,581 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $693,630,000 after purchasing an additional 299,766 shares in the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. raised its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 11.6% in the second 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in A. O. Smith by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,586,905 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $321,348,000 after buying an additional 52,593 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in A. O. Smith by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,302,659 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $206,848,000 after acquiring an additional 87,458 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 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 worth $167,387,000 after acquiring an additional 72,856 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

A. O. Smith Price Performance

NYSE AOS traded up $0.47 on Monday, reaching $71.87. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,285,710 shares, compared to its average volume of 842,383. The firm has a market cap of $10.42 billion, a PE ratio of 18.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 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. A. O. Smith has a 52 week low of $67.17 and a 52 week high of $92.44. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $71.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.24.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82. The business had revenue of $957.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $960.36 million. A. O. Smith had a return on equity of 30.09% and a net margin of 14.41%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that A. O. Smith will post 3.77 EPS for the current year.

A. O. Smith Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.89%. A. O. Smith’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.79%.

A. O. Smith Company Profile

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.