Cibc World Markets Corp Acquires New Stake in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Cibc World Markets Corp bought a new position in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,747 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $225,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new stake in shares of AZZ during the third quarter valued at approximately $61,139,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in AZZ by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,223,391 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $266,284,000 after purchasing an additional 385,240 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB purchased a new stake in AZZ during the 4th quarter valued at $7,798,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AZZ in the 4th quarter worth $5,052,000. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of AZZ in the fourth quarter worth $4,037,000. 90.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Noble Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of AZZ in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Roth Capital upgraded shares of AZZ to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. B. Riley increased their price objective on shares of AZZ from $99.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Roth Mkm started coverage on shares of AZZ in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $108.00 target price for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $100.67.

AZZ Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of AZZ stock opened at $86.41 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The company has a market cap of $2.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.38, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.27. AZZ Inc. has a 1 year low of $69.59 and a 1 year high of $99.49. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $90.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $86.12.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 7th. The industrial products company reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.10. AZZ had a return on equity of 16.99% and a net margin of 7.94%. The business had revenue of $403.65 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $394.30 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.19 earnings per share. AZZ’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 earnings per share for the current year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 30th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 30th. AZZ’s payout ratio is 45.95%.

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.