A. O. Smith Corporation $AOS Shares Bought by ProShare Advisors LLC

Key Points

• ProShare Advisors LLC increased its A. O. Smith stake by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, bringing its holdings to 2.34 million shares valued at about $156.8 million. Institutional ownership in the company remains high at 76.10%.
• Analyst sentiment on AOS is mixed to cautious: Zacks cut the stock to strong sell, while JPMorgan maintained an underweight rating and the consensus rating is now Reduce with an average price target of $69.89.
• The company recently reported Q1 results that missed estimates, posting EPS of $0.85 versus $0.94 expected and revenue of $945.6 million versus $974.1 million expected. A. O. Smith also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.36 per share, yielding about 2.5% annually.

ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of A. O. Smith Corporation (NYSE:AOS - Free Report) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,344,631 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 60,260 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC owned 1.68% of A. O. Smith worth $156,809,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AOS. Rothschild Investment LLC raised its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 3,125.0% during the third quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 387 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Torren Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of A. O. Smith during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of A. O. Smith during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Root Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of A. O. Smith during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 67.9% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AOS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Zacks Research cut A. O. Smith from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. DA Davidson set a $67.00 target price on A. O. Smith and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an "underweight" rating and set a $60.00 target price (down from $65.00) on shares of A. O. Smith in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus set a $75.00 target price on A. O. Smith in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of A. O. Smith in a report on Friday, May 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Reduce" and an average price target of $69.89.

A. O. Smith Trading Up 1.3%

AOS opened at $56.76 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.56 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $64.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $68.21. A. O. Smith Corporation has a 1-year low of $55.98 and a 1-year high of $81.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.23.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The industrial products company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.94 by ($0.09). A. O. Smith had a return on equity of 28.42% and a net margin of 13.84%.The business had revenue of $945.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $974.06 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.95 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. A. O. Smith has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.600-3.900 EPS. Analysts expect that A. O. Smith Corporation will post 3.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

A. O. Smith Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 30th. A. O. Smith's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.30%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other A. O. Smith news, SVP Darrell W. Schuh sold 1,104 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.39, for a total value of $82,126.56. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 2,201 shares of the company's stock, valued at $163,732.39. This trade represents a 33.40% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

A. O. Smith Profile

A. O. Smith Corporation, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a leading manufacturer of water heating and water treatment products for residential and commercial applications. Since its founding in 1874, the company has built a reputation for producing reliable, energy-efficient water heaters, boilers and pressure vessels. Its product portfolio encompasses gas, electric, condensing and tankless water heaters, as well as specialty boilers designed to meet a variety of building and industrial needs.

The company operates through two primary segments: North America and Asia.

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