Aaon, the Industrials sector company, was revisited by a Wall Street analyst today. Analyst Ryan Merkel from William Blair maintained a Buy rating on the stock and has a $98.00 price target.
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Ryan Merkel has given his Buy rating due to a combination of factors tied to AAON’s strong operational momentum and earnings power. The company dramatically exceeded EPS expectations on the back of robust demand across both its core AAON-branded portfolio and the BASX business, and management’s upgraded 2026 outlook points to meaningfully higher earnings than the Street had modeled, with further upside if gross margins normalize.
Merkel also highlights BASX as a key growth engine, with data center–related revenue surging and a sharply higher BASX backlog that underpins multi‑year earnings visibility, particularly in liquid‑cooling solutions. While recent gross margin shortfalls tied to outsourcing and temporary cost items are a concern, the expanding total backlog and strong order trends support his view that margins can recover over time, justifying a continued Buy rating and an unchanged $98 price target.