Wells Fargo & Company Upgrades AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) to “Strong-Buy”

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on AZZ. Sidoti lowered shares of AZZ from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $101.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of AZZ from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Noble Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of AZZ in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of AZZ from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of AZZ from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.29.

AZZ Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE AZZ opened at $112.59 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.05 and a beta of 1.30. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $102.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $93.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.51. AZZ has a 52-week low of $70.90 and a 52-week high of $117.35.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 9th. The industrial products company reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.59 by $0.19. AZZ had a net margin of 16.40% and a return on equity of 15.54%. The firm 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 firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that AZZ will post 5.13 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at AZZ

In related news, CEO Thomas E. Ferguson sold 26,516 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.85, for a total transaction of $2,939,298.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 183,182 shares in the company, valued at $20,305,724.70. The trade was a 12.64% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Kurt L. Russell sold 10,321 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.21, for a total transaction of $1,158,119.41. Following the transaction, the insider owned 16,804 shares in the company, valued at $1,885,576.84. The trade was a 38.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 46,837 shares of company stock worth $5,195,318. Company insiders own 1.77% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AZZ. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of AZZ by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,729,287 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $223,584,000 after acquiring an additional 124,392 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of AZZ by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,110,831 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $90,999,000 after acquiring an additional 29,306 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of AZZ by 19.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 882,308 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $72,279,000 after acquiring an additional 142,215 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AZZ by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 708,852 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $66,981,000 after acquiring an additional 9,326 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of AZZ by 19.4% in the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 650,072 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $54,353,000 after acquiring an additional 105,723 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.