Vanguard Group Inc. Buys 3,120 Shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,697,428 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,120 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 10.75% of AZZ worth $156,694,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AZZ. Intrinsic Edge Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AZZ during the fourth quarter worth about $1,162,000. Chesapeake Capital Corp IL bought a new stake in shares of AZZ in the fourth quarter worth $2,082,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in AZZ during the fourth quarter worth $9,715,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in AZZ by 11.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,055,634 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $61,322,000 after purchasing an additional 106,091 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jump Financial LLC acquired a new stake in AZZ in the 4th quarter valued at $1,286,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. B. Riley raised their price objective on AZZ from $67.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. StockNews.com cut AZZ from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on AZZ in a report on Monday, May 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $105.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of AZZ in a report on Friday, June 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $90.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Noble Financial upgraded shares of AZZ from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $95.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $93.75.

AZZ Stock Up 1.7 %

AZZ opened at $76.66 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $71.84. AZZ Inc. has a 1-year low of $40.07 and a 1-year high of $86.94. The stock has a market cap of $2.28 billion, a PE ratio of 22.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.23. AZZ had a net margin of 6.61% and a return on equity of 15.66%. The company had revenue of $366.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $351.67 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that AZZ Inc. will post 4.96 earnings per share for the current year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.89%. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 19.83%.

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.