Bridgewater Associates LP Invests $385,000 in AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON)

Bridgewater Associates LP bought a new position in AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 3,268 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $385,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AAON. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board lifted its holdings in shares of AAON by 679.6% during the fourth quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 20,713 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,438,000 after buying an additional 18,056 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its position in AAON by 34.9% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 113,985 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $13,414,000 after acquiring an additional 29,513 shares during the period. Next Century Growth Investors LLC boosted its holdings in AAON by 26.7% in the 4th quarter. Next Century Growth Investors LLC now owns 149,467 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $17,589,000 after purchasing an additional 31,455 shares during the period. Ranger Investment Management L.P. boosted its holdings in AAON by 18.2% in the 4th quarter. Ranger Investment Management L.P. now owns 355,531 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $41,839,000 after purchasing an additional 54,631 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in AAON by 15.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,032,497 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $239,184,000 after purchasing an additional 274,119 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of AAON from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. CJS Securities raised AAON from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on AAON from $150.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on AAON from $155.00 to $116.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $115.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at AAON

In other news, Director David Raymond Stewart purchased 1,000 shares of AAON stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $80.86 per share, for a total transaction of $80,860.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $242,580. This represents a 50.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 18.55% of the company’s stock.

AAON Stock Up 2.5 %

NASDAQ AAON opened at $82.46 on Friday. AAON, Inc. has a 1-year low of $68.98 and a 1-year high of $144.07. The company has a market capitalization of $6.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.33 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $86.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $109.97. The company has a current ratio of 3.06, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

AAON Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th were paid a $0.10 dividend. This is a positive change from AAON’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. AAON’s payout ratio is currently 19.90%.

AAON declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase 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 repurchase up to 0.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

AAON Company Profile

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.