Blue Trust Inc. Has $590,000 Stock Position in A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS)

Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) by 10.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,645 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 817 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in A. O. Smith were worth $590,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AOS. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of 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 worth $693,630,000 after acquiring an additional 299,766 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in A. O. Smith by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,586,905 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $321,348,000 after purchasing an additional 52,593 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in A. O. Smith by 3.9% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,302,659 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $206,848,000 after purchasing an additional 87,458 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of A. O. Smith by 1.8% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,176,835 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $105,715,000 after buying an additional 21,094 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,137,184 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $102,153,000 after buying an additional 83,495 shares during the period. 76.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on AOS. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of A. O. Smith from $82.00 to $81.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on A. O. Smith from $91.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Citigroup dropped their price target on 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. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of A. O. Smith in a research report on Saturday, January 18th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of A. O. Smith from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Five equities research 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.com, A. O. Smith presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $83.14.

A. O. Smith Stock Down 2.7 %

Shares of AOS stock opened at $67.39 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $9.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 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 stock has a fifty day moving average price of $70.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.53. A. O. Smith Co. has a one year low of $65.53 and a one year high of $92.44.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last issued its 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 14.41% and a return on equity of 30.09%. Analysts predict that A. O. Smith Co. will post 3.77 earnings per share for the current year.

A. O. Smith Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. A. O. Smith’s dividend payout ratio is 35.79%.

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.