Cetera Investment Advisers Raises Stock Holdings in A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS)

Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 27,307 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 315 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in A. O. Smith were worth $1,863,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AOS. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of A. O. Smith during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $96,180,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of A. O. Smith by 26.8% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,704,295 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $320,880,000 after acquiring an additional 995,043 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of A. O. Smith by 40.1% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,648,825 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $112,467,000 after acquiring an additional 471,990 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in A. O. Smith by 19.0% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super purchased a new stake in A. O. Smith in the fourth quarter worth $19,918,000. 76.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on AOS. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on A. O. Smith from $88.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of A. O. Smith in a research report on Saturday, May 10th. StockNews.com raised A. O. Smith from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on A. O. Smith from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on A. O. Smith from $69.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $76.17.

A. O. Smith Price Performance

A. O. Smith stock opened at $70.51 on Tuesday. A. O. Smith Co. has a one year low of $58.83 and a one year high of $92.45. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $65.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $68.48. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $10.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.42, a PEG 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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $963.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $950.56 million. A. O. Smith had a return on equity of 28.87% and a net margin of 13.98%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.00 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that A. O. Smith Co. will post 3.76 EPS for the current year.

A. O. Smith Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th were paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 30th. A. O. Smith’s dividend payout ratio is 37.99%.

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.