AAON (NASDAQ:AAON) Lowered to “Sell” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of AAON (NASDAQ:AAON) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of AAON from $155.00 to $116.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of AAON from $150.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, CJS Securities upgraded shares of AAON from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $115.50.

AAON Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAON opened at $72.99 on Friday. AAON has a twelve month low of $68.98 and a twelve month high of $144.07. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $91.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $102.77. The company has a market capitalization of $5.94 billion, a PE ratio of 32.15 and a beta of 1.03. 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 (NASDAQ:AAON) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The construction company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.13. AAON had a net margin of 15.78% and a return on equity of 24.98%. The business had revenue of $322.05 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $289.16 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.46 earnings per share. AAON’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AAON will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

AAON announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, March 4th that allows the company to repurchase $30.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the construction company to buy up to 0.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

AAON Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. AAON’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Gordon Douglas Wichman sold 3,975 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.75, for a total value of $420,356.25. Following the sale, the director now owns 8,754 shares in the company, valued at $925,735.50. This represents a 31.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Gary D. Fields sold 37,189 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.20, for a total transaction of $3,651,959.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 63,714 shares in the company, valued at $6,256,714.80. This represents a 36.86% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 70,823 shares of company stock worth $7,122,451 in the last quarter. Insiders own 18.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AAON

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Blair William & Co. IL grew its position in AAON by 86.2% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 2,177,688 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $170,143,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007,906 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in AAON in the 4th quarter worth about $76,581,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in AAON in the 4th quarter worth about $73,313,000. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in AAON in the 1st quarter worth about $44,219,000. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in AAON in the 1st quarter worth about $41,180,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.81% 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.