A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) Stake Raised by D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) by 16.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 392,463 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 55,848 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.’s holdings in A. O. Smith were worth $26,770,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of A. O. Smith during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $96,180,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in A. O. Smith by 26.8% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,704,295 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $320,880,000 after purchasing an additional 995,043 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of A. O. Smith by 40.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,648,825 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $112,467,000 after purchasing an additional 471,990 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of A. O. Smith by 19.0% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,618,191 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $178,587,000 after buying an additional 417,595 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super bought a new stake in shares of A. O. Smith in the 4th quarter worth $19,918,000. 76.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AOS. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on A. O. Smith from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of A. O. Smith from $88.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of A. O. Smith from $80.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of A. O. Smith from $69.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised A. O. Smith from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, A. O. Smith presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $76.17.

A. O. Smith Stock Performance

A. O. Smith stock opened at $68.26 on Monday. A. O. Smith Co. has a fifty-two week low of $58.83 and a fifty-two week high of $92.45. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $65.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $68.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The company has a market cap of $9.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.28.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. The firm had revenue of $963.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $950.56 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.00 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that A. O. Smith Co. will post 3.76 EPS for the current year.

A. O. Smith Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.99%. A. O. Smith’s dividend payout ratio is 37.99%.

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.