Boston Partners Acquires 15,952 Shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Boston Partners lifted its holdings in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 311,938 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,952 shares during the period. Boston Partners owned about 1.04% of AZZ worth $25,852,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of AZZ by 32.4% in the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 515 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in AZZ by 39.0% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 463 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its stake in AZZ by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 3,658 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $300,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D raised its stake in AZZ by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 24,151 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,978,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares during the period. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its stake in AZZ by 202.5% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 475 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AZZ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Noble Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of AZZ in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Roth Capital raised shares of AZZ to a “strong-buy” rating in a report 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 report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Roth Mkm started coverage on shares of AZZ in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $108.00 price objective for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $100.67.

AZZ Trading Down 0.1 %

AZZ stock opened at $83.62 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $90.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $85.85. AZZ Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $69.59 and a fifty-two week high of $99.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.77. The firm has a market cap of $2.50 billion, a PE ratio of 56.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.27.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last posted its 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 analyst estimates of $394.30 million. AZZ had a net margin of 7.94% and a return on equity of 16.99%. AZZ’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.19 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 30th were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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.