Creative Planning Trims Stock Holdings in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Creative Planning lowered its position in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 2.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,767 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 196 shares during the quarter. Creative Planning’s holdings in AZZ were worth $559,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in AZZ by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,726,037 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $210,750,000 after buying an additional 28,609 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of AZZ by 4.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,147,513 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $88,646,000 after purchasing an additional 53,188 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of AZZ by 10.6% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 269,101 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $20,788,000 after purchasing an additional 25,714 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AZZ by 81,999.5% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 153,526 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $11,860,000 after purchasing an additional 153,339 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AZZ by 13.2% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 147,380 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $11,385,000 after purchasing an additional 17,223 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

AZZ Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of AZZ stock opened at $79.30 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $79.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $78.83. AZZ Inc. has a 1-year low of $45.85 and a 1-year high of $88.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a PE ratio of 61.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.32.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 9th. The industrial products company reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $409.01 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $409.50 million. AZZ had a return on equity of 16.88% and a net margin of 7.63%. AZZ’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.27 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AZZ Inc. will post 5.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.86%. AZZ’s payout ratio is 53.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird assumed coverage on AZZ in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $90.00 target price on the stock. Baird R W raised AZZ to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on AZZ in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, B. Riley upped their price objective on AZZ from $89.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.80.

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.