A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) Upgraded to “Buy” at StockNews.com

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on AOS. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of A. O. Smith from $92.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock 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 price target for the stock from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. DA Davidson lowered A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of A. O. Smith from $82.00 to $81.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, A. O. Smith presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.71.

A. O. Smith Price Performance

NYSE AOS traded up $0.34 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $71.75. 849,418 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 972,140. The company has a market cap of $10.40 billion, a PE ratio of 18.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $80.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $81.99. A. O. Smith has a fifty-two week low of $70.73 and a fifty-two week high of $92.44.

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

Institutional Trading of A. O. Smith

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AOS. Virtu Financial LLC boosted its holdings in A. O. Smith by 60.0% in the third quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 4,569 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $410,000 after purchasing an additional 1,713 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 59,376 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,334,000 after acquiring an additional 436 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 8.7% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,788 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $339,000 after buying an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of A. O. Smith by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,586,905 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $321,348,000 after purchasing an additional 52,593 shares during the period. Finally, M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in A. O. Smith by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 6,785 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $609,000 after buying an additional 253 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

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.