Blue Trust Inc. Increases Holdings in AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON)

Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON) by 372.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,795 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 1,415 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in AAON were worth $140,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Twin Tree Management LP purchased a new position in AAON during the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of AAON by 49.0% in the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 313 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its stake in shares of AAON by 613.3% in the first quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 321 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in shares of AAON by 652.3% in the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 331 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 287 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. purchased a new position in shares of AAON in the fourth quarter worth $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.81% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at AAON

In other news, Director Gordon Douglas Wichman sold 21,302 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.48, for a total value of $2,225,632.96. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,754 shares in the company, valued at $914,617.92. The trade was a 70.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gary D. Fields sold 37,189 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.20, for a total value of $3,651,959.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 63,714 shares in the company, valued at $6,256,714.80. The trade was a 36.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 70,823 shares of company stock valued at $7,122,451. Company insiders own 18.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAON has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on AAON from $155.00 to $116.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Sidoti upgraded AAON from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, June 16th. DA Davidson decreased their price target on AAON from $150.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Wall Street Zen cut AAON from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 14th. Finally, CJS Securities upgraded AAON from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AAON has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $111.50.

AAON Stock Performance

Shares of AAON opened at $73.25 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 1.80. AAON, Inc. has a one year low of $68.98 and a one year high of $144.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.55 and a beta of 1.03. The business has a fifty day moving average of $90.44 and a 200 day moving average of $99.72.

AAON (NASDAQ:AAON) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The construction company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.13. AAON had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 12.60%. The business had revenue of $322.05 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $289.16 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.46 earnings per share. AAON’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AAON, Inc. will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

AAON declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, March 4th that permits the company to buyback $30.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the construction company to repurchase up to 0.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

AAON Dividend Announcement

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

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.