AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Short Interest Update

AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in 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 shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 264,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days.

AZZ Price Performance

AZZ opened at $77.55 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $87.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $86.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.40, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.22. AZZ has a 12-month low of $69.59 and a 12-month high of $99.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85.

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

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 24th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 24th. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio is 45.95%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AZZ

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of AZZ by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 515 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its holdings in AZZ by 39.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its position in shares of AZZ by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 3,658 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $300,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lifted its position in shares of AZZ by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 24,151 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,978,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Summit Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in AZZ by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 3,072 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $252,000 after buying an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AZZ has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Roth Mkm assumed coverage on AZZ in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $108.00 price target on the stock. Roth Capital raised AZZ to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Noble Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of AZZ in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Sidoti raised shares of AZZ from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $101.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, 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. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $100.71.

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.