Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC Purchases 1,425 Shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 26.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 6,782 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,425 shares during the period. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in AZZ were worth $394,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tectonic Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in AZZ by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC now owns 15,543 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $903,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in AZZ by 2.1% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 11,079 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $505,000 after acquiring an additional 231 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in shares of AZZ by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 5,206 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $302,000 after buying an additional 417 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 513 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in shares of AZZ by 1.5% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 55,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,507,000 after buying an additional 800 shares during the period. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AZZ from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Noble Financial cut shares of AZZ from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $75.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, B. Riley increased their target price on shares of AZZ from $67.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday.

AZZ Stock Performance

Shares of AZZ stock opened at $73.27 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $61.43. AZZ Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.59 and a fifty-two week high of $84.52.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $366.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $351.67 million. AZZ had a net margin of 6.61% and a return on equity of 15.66%. AZZ’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.30 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that AZZ Inc. will post 4.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

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

AZZ Profile

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.