Franklin Resources Inc. Grows Stake in AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON)

Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON) by 258.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 330,397 shares of the construction company’s stock after purchasing an additional 238,308 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in AAON were worth $37,014,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AAON. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AAON by 202.0% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 296 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in AAON during the third quarter worth about $36,000. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in AAON during the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in AAON in the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in AAON in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $43,000. 70.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AAON. DA Davidson upped their price target on AAON from $102.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on AAON from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. StockNews.com upgraded AAON from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Sidoti lowered shares of AAON from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $102.00 to $111.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Baird R W raised shares of AAON from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.00.

AAON Stock Performance

Shares of AAON stock opened at $122.57 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $9.96 billion, a PE ratio of 54.00 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 3.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. AAON, Inc. has a 52 week low of $68.38 and a 52 week high of $144.07. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $124.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.90.

AAON (NASDAQ:AAON) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The construction company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $327.25 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $315.80 million. AAON had a net margin of 15.78% and a return on equity of 24.98%. AAON’s revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.64 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that AAON, Inc. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

AAON Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. AAON’s payout ratio is 14.10%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Stephen E. Wakefield sold 5,362 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.99, for a total transaction of $702,368.38. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 4,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $597,052.42. This represents a 54.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Rebecca Thompson sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.00, for a total transaction of $690,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 17,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,386,986. The trade was a 22.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 57,329 shares of company stock worth $7,663,726 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 18.55% of the company’s stock.

About AAON

AAON, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in engineering, manufacturing, marketing, and selling air conditioning and heating equipment in the United States and Canada. The company operates through three segments: AAON Oklahoma, AAON Coil Products, and BASX. It offers rooftop units, data center cooling solutions, cleanroom systems, chillers, packaged outdoor mechanical rooms, air handling units, makeup air units, energy recovery units, condensing units, geothermal/water-source heat pumps, coils, and controls.