Barclays PLC Acquires 40,938 Shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Barclays PLC raised its holdings in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 389.1% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 51,458 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 40,938 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC’s holdings in AZZ were worth $4,250,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of AZZ by 3,790.0% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 389 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 379 shares during the period. Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in shares of AZZ during the second quarter valued at about $52,000. CWM LLC boosted its position in shares of AZZ by 51.2% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 694 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of AZZ in the 2nd quarter valued at about $67,000. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new stake in shares of AZZ in the 2nd quarter valued at about $100,000. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $96.80.

AZZ Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE AZZ opened at $81.66 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.80, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $85.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $81.39. AZZ Inc. has a 12 month low of $54.67 and a 12 month high of $97.98.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 9th. The industrial products company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.05. AZZ had a net margin of 7.63% and a return on equity of 16.88%. The company had revenue of $409.01 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $409.50 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that AZZ Inc. will post 5.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio is presently 53.13%.

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.