AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Short Interest Up 86.4% in February

AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,100,000 shares, a growth of 86.4% from the February 13th total of 590,100 shares. Approximately 3.8% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 221,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.0 days.

AZZ Price Performance

NYSE:AZZ traded up $0.45 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $86.63. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 259,293 shares, compared to its average volume of 243,467. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $90.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $85.76. The company has a market capitalization of $2.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.53, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.26. AZZ has a twelve month low of $69.59 and a twelve 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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $403.65 million for 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%. AZZ’s revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.19 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that AZZ will post 5.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AZZ

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in AZZ by 32.4% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 515 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its position in AZZ by 39.0% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 463 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its position in AZZ by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 3,658 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $300,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D raised its position in AZZ by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 24,151 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,978,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Summit Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in AZZ by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 3,072 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on AZZ shares. Roth Mkm started coverage on AZZ in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $108.00 price target for the company. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. B. Riley increased their target price on AZZ from $99.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Roth Capital raised AZZ to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Noble Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of AZZ in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Four investment 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 has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $100.67.

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.