61,664 Shares in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Bought by Raymond James Financial Inc.

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 61,664 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,052,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AZZ. Nordea Investment Management AB bought a new position in AZZ in the fourth quarter valued at $7,798,000. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC bought a new position in AZZ in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,421,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of AZZ by 23.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 22,715 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,861,000 after purchasing an additional 4,315 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AZZ by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 131,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $10,772,000 after buying an additional 8,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AZZ by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 675,603 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $55,823,000 after buying an additional 10,072 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AZZ has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Roth Mkm began coverage on shares of AZZ in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $108.00 price target for the company. Roth Capital raised AZZ to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Noble Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of AZZ in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, B. Riley raised 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. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $100.67.

AZZ Stock Performance

NYSE:AZZ opened at $86.18 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $90.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $86.12. The stock has a market cap of $2.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.23, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.27. AZZ Inc. has a 1-year low of $69.59 and a 1-year high of $99.49. 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 (NYSE:AZZ) last announced its earnings results 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. AZZ had a net margin of 7.94% and a return on equity of 16.99%. The company had revenue of $403.65 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $394.30 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.19 earnings per share. AZZ’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 earnings per share for the current year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

The business 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 was Thursday, January 30th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.95%.

AZZ 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.