AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) Sets New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

Shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $90.80 and last traded at $90.76, with a volume of 5462 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $87.66.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on AZZ in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.80.

AZZ Trading Up 3.0 %

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $80.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $79.58. The stock has a market cap of $2.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.48, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a current ratio of 1.85.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 9th. The industrial products company reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.05. AZZ had a return on equity of 16.88% and a net margin of 7.63%. The business had revenue of $409.01 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $409.50 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AZZ Inc. will post 5.11 EPS for the current year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.13%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AZZ

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 10,072 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in AZZ by 389.1% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 51,458 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,250,000 after acquiring an additional 40,938 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in AZZ in the third quarter valued at $448,000. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its holdings in AZZ by 40.7% in the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 8,676 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $717,000 after acquiring an additional 2,511 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zacks Investment Management purchased a new position in AZZ in the third quarter valued at about $391,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

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.