StockNews.com Lowers AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) to Hold

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

Several other research firms have also weighed in on AZZ. Noble Financial lowered shares of AZZ from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and set a $75.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. B. Riley raised their target price on shares of AZZ from $67.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd.

AZZ Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AZZ opened at $75.02 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.87, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.89 and a quick ratio of 1.28. AZZ has a 12 month low of $34.59 and a 12 month high of $84.52. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $75.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $62.60.

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

AZZ Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 17th were paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 16th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.91%. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.83%.

Institutional Trading of AZZ

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AZZ during the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Covestor Ltd raised its stake 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. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new stake in AZZ during the 1st quarter valued at $92,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AZZ in the first quarter valued at $215,000. Finally, Claro Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AZZ in the first quarter worth $237,000. 90.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AZZ Company Profile

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.