Farther Finance Advisors LLC Acquires 379 Shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its stake in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 3,790.0% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 389 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 379 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in AZZ were worth $32,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of AZZ. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of AZZ by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,726,037 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $210,750,000 after buying an additional 28,609 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in AZZ by 325.3% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 122,141 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $9,435,000 after purchasing an additional 93,420 shares during the period. Delphi Management Inc. MA increased its stake in AZZ by 11.9% in the second quarter. Delphi Management Inc. MA now owns 23,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,830,000 after purchasing an additional 2,521 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in shares of AZZ by 8.7% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 85,547 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,608,000 after purchasing an additional 6,847 shares during the period. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in shares of AZZ by 81,999.5% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 153,526 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $11,860,000 after purchasing an additional 153,339 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

AZZ Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AZZ opened at $83.83 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market cap of $2.50 billion, a PE ratio of 65.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $79.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $79.19. AZZ Inc. has a 1-year low of $48.03 and a 1-year high of $88.67.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 9th. The industrial products company reported $1.37 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $409.01 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $409.50 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that AZZ Inc. will post 5.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. AZZ’s payout ratio is 53.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on AZZ shares. Baird R W raised AZZ to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on AZZ in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Robert W. Baird assumed coverage on AZZ in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $90.00 target price on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AZZ presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.80.

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.