In the latest trading session, A.O. Smith (AOS) closed at $65.72, marking a -1.34% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.3%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.69%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.45%.
Coming into today, shares of the maker of water heaters and boilers had lost 7.78% in the past month. In that same time, the Industrial Products sector lost 3.55%, while the S&P 500 lost 5.33%.
Investors will be hoping for strength from A.O. Smith as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.75, up 25% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $969.22 million, up 26.04% from the year-ago period.
AOS's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.55 per share and revenue of $4.14 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +19.93% and +16.98%, respectively.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for A.O. Smith. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. A.O. Smith is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, A.O. Smith is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 18.76. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 19.73, which means A.O. Smith is trading at a discount to the group.
We can also see that AOS currently has a PEG ratio of 2.08. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Manufacturing - Electronics industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.69 as of yesterday's close.
The Manufacturing - Electronics industry is part of the Industrial Products sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 51, which puts it in the top 21% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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A. O. Smith Corporation (AOS): Free Stock Analysis Report
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