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

Weiss Ratings reiterated their hold (c) rating on shares of A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) in a report released on Saturday,Weiss Ratings reports.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. UBS Group decreased their price objective on A. O. Smith from $80.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on shares of A. O. Smith from $88.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of A. O. Smith from $90.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com upgraded A. O. Smith from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, DA Davidson downgraded 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. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, A. O. Smith presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $80.86.

A. O. Smith Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:AOS opened at $67.07 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 0.96. A. O. Smith has a 1 year low of $65.53 and a 1 year high of $92.44. The company has a market cap of $9.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.48, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $70.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $77.04.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The industrial products company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.05). A. O. Smith had a net margin of 13.98% and a return on equity of 28.87%. Sell-side analysts expect that A. O. Smith will post 3.76 earnings per share for the current year.

A. O. Smith Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. A. O. Smith’s payout ratio is 37.47%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its position in A. O. Smith by 7.2% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 2,007 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $164,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its position in A. O. Smith by 1.4% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 13,844 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,132,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in A. O. Smith by 2.6% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 25,904 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,119,000 after purchasing an additional 649 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of A. O. Smith in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,372,000. Finally, Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 24,436 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,195,000 after purchasing an additional 1,419 shares during the period. 76.10% of the stock is currently owned by 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.