A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) Short Interest Up 6.7% in December

A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS - Get Free Report) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,150,000 shares, an increase of 6.7% from the December 15th total of 3,890,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,060,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.9 days. Currently, 3.5% of the company's stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of A. O. Smith

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AOS. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in A. O. Smith by 10.9% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 200,425 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $16,391,000 after buying an additional 19,621 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in A. O. Smith by 1.7% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,194,731 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $97,708,000 after purchasing an additional 19,890 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank lifted its position in A. O. Smith by 27.0% in the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 32,422 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $2,651,000 after purchasing an additional 6,900 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in A. O. Smith by 20.0% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 13,337 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,091,000 after purchasing an additional 2,220 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in A. O. Smith by 35.3% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 69,688 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $5,699,000 after purchasing an additional 18,170 shares during the period. 76.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on AOS. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of 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. UBS Group raised A. O. Smith from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com lowered A. O. Smith from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday. DA Davidson downgraded A. O. Smith from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer upgraded 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 note on Tuesday, January 14th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $83.14.

A. O. Smith Stock Performance

NYSE AOS traded up $0.47 on Friday, reaching $71.87. The stock had a trading volume of 1,285,710 shares, compared to its average volume of 842,383. The stock has a market cap of $10.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.18. A. O. Smith has a 12-month low of $67.17 and a 12-month high of $92.44. The business's 50-day moving average price is $71.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $78.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.67.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, meeting 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 firm had revenue of $957.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $960.36 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that A. O. Smith will post 3.77 earnings per share for the current year.

A. O. Smith Announces Dividend

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 given a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. A. O. Smith's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.

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