Short Interest in AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON) Drops By 19.8%

AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON - Get Free Report) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,150,000 shares, a drop of 19.8% from the October 15th total of 2,680,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 369,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.8 days.

Insider Activity at AAON

In other AAON news, VP Casey Kidwell sold 4,796 shares of the 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 owns 4,953 shares in the company, valued at approximately $675,490.14. This trade represents a 49.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 18.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AAON

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAON. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AAON in the first quarter worth $212,000. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in shares of AAON by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 146,519 shares of the construction company's stock worth $12,908,000 after acquiring an additional 2,985 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in AAON by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 35,819 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $3,156,000 after acquiring an additional 1,090 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in AAON by 7.4% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 13,656 shares of the construction company's stock worth $1,203,000 after purchasing an additional 940 shares during the period. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of AAON during the first quarter valued at $423,000. 70.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on AAON shares. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on AAON from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Sidoti lowered AAON from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $102.00 to $111.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Baird R W raised AAON from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. StockNews.com upgraded AAON from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their target price on AAON from $102.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Two equities research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $133.00.

AAON Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAON traded down $1.22 during trading on Friday, reaching $131.96. 196,738 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 601,113. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $108.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $92.56. AAON has a 52-week low of $61.09 and a 52-week high of $144.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.73 billion, a PE ratio of 58.67 and a beta of 0.79. 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 - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The construction company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $327.25 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $315.80 million. AAON had a net margin of 15.78% and a return on equity of 24.98%. The firm's revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.64 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that AAON will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

AAON Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.24%. AAON's payout ratio is currently 14.10%.

AAON Company Profile

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.