AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) Shares Gap Down to $82.43

AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $82.43, but opened at $77.17. AZZ shares last traded at $75.71, with a volume of 109,366 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AZZ has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Noble Financial lowered shares of AZZ from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. B. Riley increased their target price on shares of AZZ from $67.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of AZZ from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th.

AZZ Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.89 and a quick ratio of 1.33. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $75.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $61.35. The stock has a market cap of $1.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.28.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $366.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $351.67 million. AZZ had a net margin of 6.61% and a return on equity of 15.66%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.30 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that AZZ Inc. will post 4.83 earnings per share for the current year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 16th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.93%. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.83%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AZZ

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of AZZ in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in AZZ by 131.5% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 903 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 513 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in AZZ in the first quarter valued at approximately $215,000. Claro Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in AZZ in the first quarter valued at approximately $237,000. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in AZZ in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $197,000. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About AZZ

AZZ Inc provides hot-dip galvanizing and coil coating solutions in the United States, Canada, Brazil, China, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, and India. The company operates through AZZ Metal Coatings and AZZ Precoat Metals segments. The AZZ Metal Coatings segment offers metal finishing solutions for corrosion protection, including hot-dip galvanizing, spin galvanizing, powder coating, anodizing, and plating to steel fabrication and other industries.