Valmark Advisers Inc. Purchases Shares of 2,515 A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS)

Valmark Advisers Inc. acquired a new position in shares of A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,515 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $226,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sarasin & Partners LLP acquired a new stake in A. O. Smith in the third quarter worth $78,766,000. Select Equity Group L.P. grew its stake in shares of A. O. Smith by 11.6% in the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 3,852,467 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $315,055,000 after buying an additional 400,304 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of A. O. Smith in the 2nd quarter valued at about $22,288,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in A. O. Smith in the 3rd quarter valued at about $24,060,000. Finally, Distillate Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in A. O. Smith by 100,431.5% during the 2nd quarter. Distillate Capital Partners LLC now owns 162,861 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $13,319,000 after buying an additional 162,699 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Samuel M. Carver sold 14,705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.00, for a total transaction of $1,191,105.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 2,399 shares in the company, valued at approximately $194,319. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 2.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AOS. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on A. O. Smith from $82.00 to $81.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of A. O. Smith from $92.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group raised shares of A. O. Smith from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 26th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $86.71.

A. O. Smith Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:AOS opened at $75.11 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.02 billion, a PE ratio of 19.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.15. A. O. Smith Co. has a 1 year low of $69.17 and a 1 year high of $92.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $82.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $83.14.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82. A. O. Smith had a net margin of 14.41% and a return on equity of 30.09%. The business had revenue of $957.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $960.36 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that A. O. Smith Co. will post 3.78 earnings per share for the current year.

A. O. Smith Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. This is a boost from A. O. Smith’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 31st. A. O. Smith’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.23%.

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.