AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $96.80.

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th.

AZZ Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of AZZ stock opened at $81.33 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.30. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $86.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $81.61. AZZ has a 52-week low of $55.78 and a 52-week high of $97.98. 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.05. AZZ had a net margin of 7.63% and a return on equity of 16.88%. The firm had revenue of $409.01 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $409.50 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that AZZ will post 5.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.84%. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.13%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AZZ

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AZZ. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in AZZ by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 157,418 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $13,004,000 after buying an additional 10,038 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of AZZ by 22.4% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 20,073 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,658,000 after acquiring an additional 3,673 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in AZZ by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 675,603 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $55,823,000 after acquiring an additional 10,072 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its stake in AZZ by 389.1% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 51,458 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,250,000 after purchasing an additional 40,938 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in AZZ in the 3rd quarter valued at $448,000. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by 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.