AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Friday.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on AZZ. Noble Financial cut shares of AZZ from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and set a $75.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. B. Riley lifted their target price on shares of AZZ from $67.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd.

AZZ Price Performance

Shares of AZZ opened at $75.39 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $75.39 and a 200-day moving average of $62.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.26. AZZ has a twelve month low of $34.59 and a twelve month high of $84.52.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.23. AZZ had a return on equity of 15.66% and a net margin of 6.61%. The firm had revenue of $366.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $351.67 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.30 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that AZZ will post 4.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 16th. AZZ’s payout ratio is 19.83%.

Institutional Trading of AZZ

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of AZZ during the first quarter worth approximately $32,000. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in AZZ by 131.5% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 903 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 513 shares during the period. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in AZZ in the 1st quarter valued at $92,000. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of AZZ during the 4th quarter valued at $197,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AZZ during the 3rd quarter worth $203,000. 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.