AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 920,100 shares, a drop of 16.4% from the February 28th total of 1,100,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 248,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.7 days. Approximately 3.1% of the shares of the company are short sold.

AZZ Price Performance

NYSE:AZZ traded up $2.18 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $85.79. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 190,407 shares, compared to its average volume of 246,709. The company has a market capitalization of $2.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.27. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $69.59 and a fifty-two week high of $99.49. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $90.36 and a 200-day moving average of $86.41.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 7th. The industrial products company reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.10. AZZ had a return on equity of 16.99% and a net margin of 7.94%. The business had revenue of $403.65 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $394.30 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.19 EPS. AZZ’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that AZZ will post 5.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 30th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 30th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.79%. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio is 45.95%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new stake in AZZ during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $61,139,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of AZZ by 13.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,223,391 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $266,284,000 after buying an additional 385,240 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of AZZ by 554.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 251,823 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $20,629,000 after buying an additional 213,355 shares during the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in AZZ during the 4th quarter worth about $10,612,000. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in AZZ by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,729,287 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $223,584,000 after acquiring an additional 124,392 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AZZ. B. Riley boosted their price objective on shares of AZZ from $99.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Noble Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of AZZ in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Roth Mkm initiated coverage on AZZ in a research report 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 report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $100.67.

AZZ Company 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.