AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $108.00.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on AZZ shares. Noble Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of AZZ in a research note on Monday. Evercore ISI upped their price target on AZZ from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Sidoti cut AZZ from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $101.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on AZZ from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised AZZ from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, July 12th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AZZ news, CEO Thomas E. Ferguson sold 18,851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.91, for a total value of $1,694,893.41. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 192,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,317,295.37. This represents a 8.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.77% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AZZ

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in AZZ by 2.3% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 168,694 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $14,105,000 after buying an additional 3,854 shares during the period. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC lifted its position in AZZ by 16.6% during the first quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 3,316 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $277,000 after buying an additional 471 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its position in AZZ by 151.9% during the fourth quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 20,193 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,654,000 after buying an additional 12,178 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in AZZ by 16,255.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 22,407 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,873,000 after buying an additional 22,270 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in AZZ during the first quarter worth about $338,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

AZZ Stock Performance

Shares of AZZ stock opened at $111.87 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $94.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $89.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.96 and a beta of 1.24. AZZ has a 12 month low of $69.59 and a 12 month high of $113.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.51 and a quick ratio of 1.10.

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

AZZ Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This is a positive change from AZZ’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.72%. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio is 9.27%.

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.