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 note published on Thursday morning.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. 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, April 23rd. Noble Financial lowered shares of AZZ from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and set a $75.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, March 22nd.

AZZ Trading Down 2.4 %

NYSE:AZZ opened at $71.49 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $75.28 and its 200-day moving average is $61.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.89. AZZ has a 52 week low of $34.59 and a 52 week high of $84.52. The firm has a market cap of $1.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.28.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.93 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 company had revenue of $366.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $351.67 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.30 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that AZZ will post 4.83 earnings per share for the current year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

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. 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 19.83%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of AZZ by 4,211.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 365,590 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $16,664,000 after buying an additional 357,110 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in shares of AZZ in the third quarter valued at $485,000. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its stake in shares of AZZ by 4,165.2% in the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 410,142 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $18,694,000 after buying an additional 400,526 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of AZZ in the third quarter valued at $5,216,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of AZZ by 26.5% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 51,396 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,343,000 after purchasing an additional 10,758 shares during the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About AZZ

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.