HighTower Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 0.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 77,671 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC owned about 0.26% of AZZ worth $6,363,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB purchased a new stake in AZZ during the 4th quarter worth approximately $7,798,000. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC acquired a new position in shares of AZZ in the fourth quarter worth $1,421,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of AZZ by 23.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 22,715 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,861,000 after acquiring an additional 4,315 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in AZZ by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 131,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $10,772,000 after purchasing an additional 8,400 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in AZZ by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 675,603 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $55,823,000 after purchasing an additional 10,072 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on AZZ shares. Roth Mkm started coverage on AZZ in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $108.00 price target on the stock. Noble Financial reaffirmed 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 report on Tuesday, February 11th. B. Riley raised their price objective on shares of AZZ from $99.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $100.67.

AZZ Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of AZZ stock opened at $83.62 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $90.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $85.87. The stock has a market cap of $2.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.50, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.27. AZZ Inc. has a 12-month low of $69.59 and a 12-month high of $99.49.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 7th. The industrial products company reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $403.65 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $394.30 million. AZZ had a net margin of 7.94% and a return on equity of 16.99%. AZZ’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.19 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 30th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 30th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.95%.

AZZ 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.