AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Friday morning.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. 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. 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 research report on Tuesday, April 23rd.

AZZ Price Performance

Shares of AZZ opened at $75.39 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. AZZ has a fifty-two week low of $34.59 and a fifty-two week high of $84.52. The company has a market cap of $2.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.98, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.26. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $75.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $62.72.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.23. AZZ had a return on equity of 15.66% and a net margin of 6.61%. The business had revenue of $366.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $351.67 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that AZZ will post 4.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 17th were issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 16th. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.83%.

Institutional Trading of AZZ

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AZZ. Riverwater Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AZZ by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 14,945 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,155,000 after buying an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC boosted its stake in AZZ by 1.4% in 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 in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $505,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp increased its position in shares of AZZ by 1.3% during the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 21,947 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,697,000 after purchasing an additional 284 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AZZ in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

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.