Lbmc Investment Advisors LLC Lowers Position in A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS)

Lbmc Investment Advisors LLC reduced its stake in A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 58,604 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 374 shares during the period. Lbmc Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in A. O. Smith were worth $3,997,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AOS. Sarasin & Partners LLP acquired a new position in A. O. Smith during the third quarter worth $78,766,000. Select Equity Group L.P. lifted its stake in A. O. Smith by 11.6% during the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 3,852,467 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $315,055,000 after acquiring an additional 400,304 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its stake in A. O. Smith by 92.4% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 761,410 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $68,397,000 after acquiring an additional 365,710 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in A. O. Smith by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,721,581 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $693,630,000 after acquiring an additional 299,766 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in A. O. Smith in the 3rd quarter valued at about $24,060,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AOS. Oppenheimer raised shares of A. O. Smith from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $88.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target 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. UBS Group upgraded shares of A. O. Smith from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com cut A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on A. O. Smith from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.14.

A. O. Smith Stock Up 0.7 %

A. O. Smith stock opened at $71.87 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $71.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $78.26. The stock has a market cap of $10.42 billion, a PE ratio of 18.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.18. A. O. Smith Co. has a 1-year low of $67.17 and a 1-year high of $92.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.82. The firm 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 quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that A. O. Smith Co. will post 3.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

A. O. Smith Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. A. O. Smith’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.