A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) Shares Bought by Quantinno Capital Management LP

Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its stake in A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS - Free Report) by 162.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 58,489 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 36,234 shares during the quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP's holdings in A. O. Smith were worth $3,990,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in A. O. Smith by 1.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 148,432 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $320,880,000 after acquiring an additional 995,043 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in A. O. Smith by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,698,517 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $251,751,000 after acquiring an additional 111,612 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in A. O. Smith by 19.0% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,618,191 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $178,587,000 after acquiring an additional 417,595 shares during the period. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in A. O. Smith by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,058,731 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $140,426,000 after acquiring an additional 70,989 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on AOS shares. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on A. O. Smith from $88.00 to $84.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup decreased their target price on A. O. Smith from $69.00 to $65.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. UBS Group decreased their target price on A. O. Smith from $80.00 to $74.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on A. O. Smith from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on A. O. Smith from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $76.17.

A. O. Smith Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of AOS traded down $0.36 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $67.01. The company had a trading volume of 1,270,452 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,175,420. The company has a market capitalization of $9.52 billion, a PE ratio of 18.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. A. O. Smith Co. has a one year low of $58.83 and a one year high of $92.45. The company's fifty day moving average price is $65.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.30.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $963.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $950.56 million. A. O. Smith had a return on equity of 28.87% and a net margin of 13.98%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.00 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that A. O. Smith Co. will post 3.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

A. O. Smith Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th were given a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 30th. A. O. Smith's payout ratio is 37.99%.

A. O. Smith 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.