AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.10 Per Share

AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 5th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be given a dividend of 0.10 per share by the construction company on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. This is a positive change from AAON’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08.

AAON has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.1% per year over the last three years. AAON has a dividend payout ratio of 10.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect AAON to earn $2.93 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 10.9%.

AAON Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAON traded up $5.52 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $80.77. 346,270 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 629,374. AAON has a 12-month low of $69.52 and a 12-month high of $144.07. The company has a current ratio of 3.06, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market cap of $6.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.45 and a beta of 0.87. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $114.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $114.16.

AAON declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, March 4th that permits the company to repurchase $30.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the construction company to repurchase up to 0.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AAON news, CFO Rebecca Thompson sold 5,000 shares of AAON stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 17,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,386,986. The trade was a 22.42 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 4,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $597,052.42. This trade represents a 54.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 18.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AAON. CJS Securities upgraded shares of AAON from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Robert W. Baird cut 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. StockNews.com downgraded AAON from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price objective on AAON from $150.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AAON presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $115.50.

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.