Meeder Asset Management Inc. Acquires New Shares in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,618 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC grew its position in AZZ by 13.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,223,391 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $266,284,000 after acquiring an additional 385,240 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of AZZ by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,100,189 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $90,887,000 after purchasing an additional 27,710 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in AZZ by 19.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 882,308 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $72,279,000 after purchasing an additional 142,215 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in AZZ by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 675,603 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $55,823,000 after buying an additional 10,072 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harvey Partners LLC raised its holdings in AZZ by 1.8% during the third quarter. Harvey Partners LLC now owns 666,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $55,018,000 after buying an additional 12,000 shares in the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Roth Mkm began coverage on AZZ in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $108.00 price objective on the stock. B. Riley increased their price target on AZZ from $99.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Roth Capital raised shares of AZZ to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Noble Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of AZZ in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AZZ presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $100.67.

AZZ Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of AZZ opened at $83.77 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $90.36 and its 200 day moving average price is $86.41. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.27. AZZ Inc. has a 12-month low of $69.59 and a 12-month high of $99.49.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 7th. The industrial products company reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $403.65 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $394.30 million. AZZ had a return on equity of 16.99% and a net margin of 7.94%. AZZ’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.19 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 earnings per share for the current year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 30th. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio is 45.95%.

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.