Simon Quick Advisors LLC Sells 341 Shares of A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS)

Simon Quick Advisors LLC decreased its stake in A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) by 6.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,208 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 341 shares during the quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC’s holdings in A. O. Smith were worth $355,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Perpetual Ltd boosted its stake in shares of A. O. Smith by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 118,624 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $8,091,000 after purchasing an additional 11,128 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its holdings in A. O. Smith by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 213,252 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $14,546,000 after purchasing an additional 1,891 shares during the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD boosted its position in A. O. Smith by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 7,531 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $514,000 after buying an additional 1,082 shares in the last quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in A. O. Smith by 48.0% during the fourth quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 232,047 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $15,828,000 after buying an additional 75,281 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of A. O. Smith by 99.9% in the fourth quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 5,975 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $408,000 after acquiring an additional 2,986 shares during the last quarter. 76.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on AOS. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on A. O. Smith from $91.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. DA Davidson lowered A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of A. O. Smith from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. 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 research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of A. O. Smith from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.14.

A. O. Smith Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE AOS opened at $71.36 on Friday. A. O. Smith Co. has a fifty-two week low of $67.17 and a fifty-two week high of $92.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 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. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.02.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.82. The business had revenue of $957.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 last year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. On average, analysts predict that A. O. Smith Co. will post 3.77 EPS for the current year.

A. O. Smith Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.91%. A. O. Smith’s payout ratio is currently 35.79%.

A. O. Smith 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.