Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Has $13.45 Million Stake in A. O. Smith Corporation (NYSE:AOS)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its stake in shares of A. O. Smith Corporation (NYSE:AOS - Free Report) by 32.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 205,846 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 49,862 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC owned about 0.14% of A. O. Smith worth $13,454,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,117,943 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $962,985,000 after purchasing an additional 148,432 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of A. O. Smith by 26.8% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,704,295 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $320,880,000 after buying an additional 995,043 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in A. O. Smith by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,698,517 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $251,751,000 after buying an additional 111,612 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 19.0% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,618,191 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $178,587,000 after acquiring an additional 417,595 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of A. O. Smith by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,444,338 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $166,728,000 after purchasing an additional 236,880 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on AOS shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on A. O. Smith from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of A. O. Smith from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of A. O. Smith in a research report on Wednesday, June 11th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on shares of A. O. Smith from $69.00 to $65.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, A. O. Smith has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $76.17.

A. O. Smith Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of AOS stock traded up $1.40 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $64.14. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,386,596 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,282,942. A. O. Smith Corporation has a 52 week low of $58.83 and a 52 week high of $92.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.61. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $65.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $66.92. The company has a market cap of $9.11 billion, a PE ratio of 17.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.21.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.05. A. O. Smith had a return on equity of 28.39% and a net margin of 13.74%. The firm had revenue of $963.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $950.56 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.00 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that A. O. Smith Corporation will post 3.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

A. O. Smith Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th were given a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.12%. A. O. Smith's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.99%.

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.