Boston Partners Reduces Holdings in AZZ Inc. $AZZ

Boston Partners lowered its holdings in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 19.2% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 250,133 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 59,410 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners’ holdings in AZZ were worth $24,161,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of AZZ by 39.6% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 374 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in AZZ by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 59,351 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,607,000 after buying an additional 6,220 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in AZZ during the first quarter worth $347,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AZZ in the second quarter worth $265,000. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS raised its holdings in shares of AZZ by 10.3% in the second quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 6,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $605,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

AZZ Price Performance

AZZ opened at $97.44 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $105.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $102.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.73. AZZ Inc. has a 1 year low of $70.90 and a 1 year high of $119.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.93 billion, a PE ratio of 9.37 and a beta of 1.29.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 9th. The industrial products company reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $129.87 million during the quarter. AZZ had a net margin of 19.69% and a return on equity of 15.01%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 EPS for the current year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 16th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 16th. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.69%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on AZZ. Wall Street Zen lowered AZZ from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of AZZ from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 15th. B. Riley raised their price target on shares of AZZ from $131.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of AZZ from $128.00 to $121.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of AZZ from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AZZ has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $115.43.

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.