Jane Street Group LLC Reduces Stock Position in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Jane Street Group LLC cut its position in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ - Free Report) by 54.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 23,403 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 27,790 shares during the quarter. Jane Street Group LLC owned about 0.08% of AZZ worth $1,933,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Delphi Management Inc. MA increased its position in shares of AZZ by 11.9% in the second quarter. Delphi Management Inc. MA now owns 23,685 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,830,000 after acquiring an additional 2,521 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers raised its position in shares of AZZ by 8.7% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 85,547 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $6,608,000 after purchasing an additional 6,847 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AZZ by 81,999.5% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 153,526 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $11,860,000 after buying an additional 153,339 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of AZZ by 25.7% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 59,716 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $4,613,000 after purchasing an additional 12,226 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in AZZ by 2.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,100,189 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $90,887,000 after purchasing an additional 27,710 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.93% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $96.80.

AZZ Stock Performance

AZZ stock traded up $1.07 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $82.72. 66,477 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 226,385. AZZ Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.78 and a 1-year high of $97.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.32. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $85.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.52. The firm has a market cap of $2.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.63, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.30.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 9th. The industrial products company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $409.01 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $409.50 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.27 EPS. AZZ's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that AZZ Inc. will post 5.08 earnings per share for the current year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.82%. AZZ's payout ratio is currently 53.13%.

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.