AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Short Interest Update

AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) saw a significant decline in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 767,000 shares, a decline of 16.6% from the March 15th total of 920,100 shares. Approximately 2.6% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 264,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Institutional Trading of AZZ

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of AZZ by 389.1% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 51,458 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $4,250,000 after buying an additional 40,938 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in AZZ by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 675,603 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $55,823,000 after acquiring an additional 10,072 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in shares of AZZ by 22.4% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 20,073 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,658,000 after acquiring an additional 3,673 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of AZZ by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 157,418 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $13,004,000 after purchasing an additional 10,038 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB bought a new stake in AZZ during the fourth quarter valued at $7,798,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Sidoti raised shares of AZZ from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $101.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Roth Mkm initiated coverage on shares of AZZ in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $108.00 price objective on the stock. Noble Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of AZZ in a report on Thursday, March 6th. B. Riley increased their price target on AZZ from $99.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Roth Capital upgraded shares of AZZ to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $100.71.

AZZ Price Performance

AZZ stock opened at $77.55 on Tuesday. AZZ has a 1 year low of $69.59 and a 1 year high of $99.49. The business’s 50-day moving average is $87.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $86.35. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.22.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The industrial products company reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $351.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $367.78 million. AZZ had a return on equity of 16.99% and a net margin of 7.94%. Analysts anticipate that AZZ will post 5.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 24th will be given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 24th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.88%. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.95%.

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.