AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Short Interest Update

AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,100,000 shares, an increase of 86.4% from the February 13th total of 590,100 shares. Approximately 3.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 221,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.0 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AZZ has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Roth Mkm initiated coverage on AZZ in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $108.00 price objective for the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. B. Riley raised their price objective on AZZ from $99.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Noble Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of AZZ in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Roth Capital upgraded AZZ to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Four research 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.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $100.67.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of AZZ by 3,790.0% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 389 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 379 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in shares of AZZ by 39.0% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 463 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AZZ by 202.5% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 475 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 318 shares during the period. Quarry LP boosted its position in shares of AZZ by 2,150.0% during the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 855 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 817 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its position in shares of AZZ by 50.8% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,244 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $102,000 after buying an additional 419 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

AZZ Trading Up 0.5 %

AZZ traded up $0.45 on Friday, hitting $86.63. The company had a trading volume of 259,293 shares, compared to its average volume of 243,467. The company has a market cap of $2.59 billion, a PE ratio of 58.53, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.27. AZZ has a 12-month low of $69.59 and a 12-month high of $99.49. 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $90.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.79.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $403.65 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $394.30 million. AZZ had a return on equity of 16.99% and a net margin of 7.94%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.19 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that AZZ will post 5.13 EPS for the current year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 30th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 30th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.95%.

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.