A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) Position Lessened by Citigroup Inc.

Citigroup Inc. lowered its position in A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) by 9.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 181,437 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 19,163 shares during the quarter. Citigroup Inc. owned approximately 0.13% of A. O. Smith worth $16,298,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. King Luther Capital Management Corp lifted its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 10.0% during the 3rd quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 70,747 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,355,000 after buying an additional 6,430 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in A. O. Smith in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,684,000. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. bought a new stake in A. O. Smith in the third quarter worth approximately $262,000. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of A. O. Smith during the 3rd quarter worth $268,000. Finally, S&CO Inc. bought a new position in shares of A. O. Smith during the 3rd quarter valued at $215,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AOS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lowered 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 research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. DA Davidson lowered A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded A. O. Smith from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on A. O. Smith from $92.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of A. O. Smith from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, A. O. Smith currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $86.71.

A. O. Smith Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of A. O. Smith stock opened at $74.09 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $10.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.57, a PEG ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.17. A. O. Smith Co. has a 1 year low of $70.73 and a 1 year high of $92.44. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $79.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

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. A. O. Smith had a net margin of 14.41% and a return on equity of 30.09%. The company had revenue of $957.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $960.36 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that A. O. Smith Co. will post 3.78 EPS for the current year.

A. O. Smith Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were given a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.84%. This is an increase from A. O. Smith’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. A. O. Smith’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.