Smith Group Asset Management LLC Buys Shares of 6,212 AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 6,212 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $509,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AZZ. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in AZZ by 3,790.0% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 389 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 379 shares during the period. Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new position in shares of AZZ in the second quarter worth about $52,000. CWM LLC lifted 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 valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of AZZ during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $67,000. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its holdings in AZZ by 50.8% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,244 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $102,000 after acquiring an additional 419 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AZZ has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $96.80.

AZZ Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of AZZ opened at $86.10 on Thursday. AZZ Inc. has a 12-month low of $62.08 and a 12-month high of $97.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. The company has a market capitalization of $2.57 billion, a PE ratio of 58.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.30. The business’s 50 day moving average is $88.07 and its 200 day moving average is $82.78.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 7th. The industrial products company reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $403.65 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $394.30 million. AZZ had a net margin of 7.94% and a return on equity of 16.99%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.19 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 30th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 30th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.