AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) Upgraded to Buy by 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 equities analysts have also commented on AZZ. B. Riley raised their price objective on AZZ from $67.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday. Noble Financial lowered 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.

AZZ Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AZZ opened at $71.20 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $1.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.28. 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 1-year low of $34.59 and a 1-year high of $84.52. The business’s 50 day moving average is $75.30 and its 200-day moving average is $61.43.

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

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 16th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.96%. AZZ’s payout ratio is 19.83%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AZZ

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AZZ. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of AZZ in the 3rd quarter valued at $389,000. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AZZ by 14.7% during the 3rd quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,357 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $244,000 after acquiring an additional 688 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in shares of AZZ by 41.2% during the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 4,789 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $218,000 after acquiring an additional 1,398 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of AZZ by 2.1% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in shares of AZZ during the 3rd quarter valued at $485,000. Institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

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.