Central Pacific Bank Trust Division Invests $92,000 in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Central Pacific Bank Trust Division bought a new position in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $92,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of AZZ by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,055,634 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $61,322,000 after purchasing an additional 106,091 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AZZ in the 4th quarter worth about $9,715,000. Chesapeake Capital Corp IL bought a new stake in shares of AZZ in the 4th quarter worth about $2,082,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of AZZ by 30.4% in the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 28,721 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,220,000 after purchasing an additional 6,703 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jump Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of AZZ in the 4th quarter worth about $1,286,000. Institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AZZ. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AZZ in a research report on Monday, May 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $105.00 price objective for the company. B. Riley boosted their price objective on shares of AZZ from $67.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of AZZ from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of AZZ in a research report on Friday, June 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $90.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Noble Financial raised shares of AZZ from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $95.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AZZ currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $93.75.

AZZ Price Performance

NYSE AZZ opened at $76.34 on Thursday. AZZ Inc. has a 52 week low of $42.15 and a 52 week high of $86.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. The stock has a market cap of $2.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $78.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $72.54.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 10th. The industrial products company reported $1.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.30 by $0.16. AZZ had a net margin of 6.61% and a return on equity of 15.66%. The firm had revenue of $413.21 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $403.25 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.14 EPS. AZZ’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that AZZ Inc. will post 4.96 EPS for the current year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

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

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.