StockNews.com Downgrades AAON (NASDAQ:AAON) to Sell

StockNews.com cut shares of AAON (NASDAQ:AAON) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report published on Monday morning.

Separately, William Blair initiated coverage on shares of AAON in a report on Monday, April 29th. They set an outperform rating for the company.

AAON Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AAON opened at $79.41 on Monday. AAON has a one year low of $52.24 and a one year high of $96.34. The company has a market cap of $6.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.99 and a beta of 0.80. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $80.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $78.23.

AAON (NASDAQ:AAON) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The construction company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.07). AAON had a return on equity of 25.84% and a net margin of 15.44%. The company had revenue of $262.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $284.76 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that AAON will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AAON Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. AAON’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.91%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AAON news, CFO Rebecca Thompson sold 13,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.00, for a total value of $1,039,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 17,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,331,869. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other AAON news, CFO Rebecca Thompson sold 13,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.00, for a total value of $1,039,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 17,297 shares in the company, valued at $1,331,869. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary D. Fields sold 28,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.13, for a total transaction of $2,146,866.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 64,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,894,778.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 18.55% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AAON

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of AAON by 57.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,489,640 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $425,936,000 after buying an additional 2,725,779 shares during the period. Jump Financial LLC increased its position in shares of AAON by 200.0% during the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 51,000 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $3,767,000 after buying an additional 34,000 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of AAON during the fourth quarter valued at about $22,784,000. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of AAON by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,354,242 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $247,778,000 after buying an additional 25,178 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its position in shares of AAON by 49.9% during the third quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 89,210 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $5,073,000 after buying an additional 29,704 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.