AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) Raised to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Thursday.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on AZZ. B. Riley increased their price objective on shares of AZZ from $67.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Noble Financial lowered shares of AZZ from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and set a $75.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, March 22nd.

AZZ Price Performance

NYSE AZZ opened at $71.49 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. AZZ has a 12 month low of $34.59 and a 12 month high of $84.52. The company’s 50 day moving average is $75.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $61.81. The stock has a market cap of $1.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.84, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.28.

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

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 16th. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.83%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of AZZ by 11.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,055,634 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $61,322,000 after purchasing an additional 106,091 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in AZZ by 4,165.2% during the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 410,142 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $18,694,000 after buying an additional 400,526 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in AZZ by 5.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 394,920 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $18,000,000 after buying an additional 18,948 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in AZZ by 4,211.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 365,590 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $16,664,000 after buying an additional 357,110 shares during the period. Finally, Kennedy Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in AZZ by 37.2% during the third quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 282,716 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $12,886,000 after buying an additional 76,697 shares during the period. 90.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AZZ Company Profile

AZZ Inc provides hot-dip galvanizing and coil coating solutions in North America. It offers metal finishing solutions for corrosion protection, including hot-dip galvanizing, spin galvanizing, powder coating, anodizing, and plating to steel fabrication and other industries, as well as to fabricators or manufacturers that provide services to the transmission and distribution, bridge and highway, petrochemical, and general industrial markets; and original equipment manufacturers.