AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,650,000 shares, a decrease of 8.3% from the November 30th total of 1,800,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 419,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.9 days.

AAON Stock Performance

Shares of AAON stock opened at $119.65 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.71 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $126.94 and a 200 day moving average of $105.04. AAON has a 52 week low of $68.38 and a 52 week high of $144.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 3.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

AAON (NASDAQ:AAON) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The construction company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.06. AAON had a net margin of 15.78% and a return on equity of 24.98%. The firm had revenue of $327.25 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $315.80 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.64 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that AAON will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

AAON Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.27%. AAON’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 14.10%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on AAON from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Baird R W upgraded shares of AAON from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Sidoti lowered shares of AAON from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $102.00 to $111.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of AAON from $102.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of AAON from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AAON has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Gary D. Fields sold 35,000 shares of AAON stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.03, for a total value of $4,621,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 64,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,488,868.85. The trade was a 35.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Casey Kidwell sold 4,796 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.38, for a total value of $654,078.48. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 4,953 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $675,490.14. This trade represents a 49.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 57,329 shares of company stock valued at $7,663,726 over the last quarter. 18.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAON. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in shares of AAON by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 8,796 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $949,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. grew its holdings in AAON by 4.5% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 3,601 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $388,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its holdings in AAON by 3.1% in the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 6,486 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $699,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of AAON by 202.0% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 296 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of AAON by 1.0% during the third quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 19,312 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $2,083,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.81% of the company’s stock.

About AAON

AAON, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in engineering, manufacturing, marketing, and selling air conditioning and heating equipment in the United States and Canada. The company operates through three segments: AAON Oklahoma, AAON Coil Products, and BASX. It offers rooftop units, data center cooling solutions, cleanroom systems, chillers, packaged outdoor mechanical rooms, air handling units, makeup air units, energy recovery units, condensing units, geothermal/water-source heat pumps, coils, and controls.