A. O. Smith Co. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.34 (NYSE:AOS)

A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 16th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of 0.34 per share by the industrial products company on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st.

A. O. Smith has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.0% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 31 years. A. O. Smith has a dividend payout ratio of 30.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect A. O. Smith to earn $4.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 33.7%.

A. O. Smith Price Performance

AOS stock opened at $71.87 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.18. A. O. Smith has a 52-week low of $67.17 and a 52-week high of $92.44. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $71.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $78.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.67.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82. The firm had revenue of $957.80 million for 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. Research analysts expect that A. O. Smith will post 3.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group upgraded shares of A. O. Smith from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded A. O. Smith from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on A. O. Smith from $91.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Citigroup decreased their target price on A. O. Smith from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised shares of A. O. Smith from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $88.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $83.14.

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.