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 issued to investors on Thursday.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Noble Financial downgraded 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 lifted 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.

AZZ Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of AZZ opened at $71.49 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $1.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.84, a PEG ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.28. 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 fifty-two week low of $34.59 and a fifty-two week high of $84.52. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $75.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $61.72.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.30 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that AZZ will post 4.83 earnings per share for the current year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AZZ. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in AZZ during the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Covestor Ltd increased its position in AZZ by 131.5% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 903 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 513 shares during the period. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in AZZ during the 4th quarter valued at $197,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in AZZ during the 3rd quarter valued at $203,000. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in AZZ during the 1st quarter valued at $215,000. 90.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.