AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on AZZ. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on AZZ from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Evercore ISI increased their price target on AZZ from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Sidoti downgraded AZZ from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $101.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, June 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AZZ presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $108.00.

AZZ Price Performance

AZZ stock opened at $105.95 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.28 and a beta of 1.24. AZZ has a twelve month low of $69.59 and a twelve month high of $113.58. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $93.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $89.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 9th. The industrial products company reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $421,962 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $435.91 million. AZZ had a return on equity of 15.54% and a net margin of 16.40%. The company’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AZZ will post 5.13 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at AZZ

In other AZZ news, CEO Thomas E. Ferguson sold 26,889 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.88, for a total value of $2,309,227.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 211,458 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,160,013.04. This represents a 11.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 1.77% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AZZ. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its stake in shares of AZZ by 2.8% during the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 4,220 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $353,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of AZZ by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 515 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in shares of AZZ by 39.0% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 463 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of AZZ by 4.2% during the first quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,606 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $302,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC boosted its stake in shares of AZZ by 1.0% during the first quarter. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC now owns 17,528 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,466,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.