AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ - Get Free Report) saw a significant decline in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 767,000 shares, a decline of 16.6% from the March 15th total of 920,100 shares. Currently, 2.6% of the company's shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 264,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AZZ

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of AZZ by 554.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 251,823 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $20,629,000 after acquiring an additional 213,355 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in AZZ by 19.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 882,308 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $72,279,000 after purchasing an additional 142,215 shares in the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AZZ in the 4th quarter valued at about $10,612,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of AZZ by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,729,287 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $223,584,000 after buying an additional 124,392 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB purchased a new stake in shares of AZZ during the fourth quarter worth approximately $7,798,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.93% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AZZ has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Sidoti raised AZZ from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $101.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Roth Mkm assumed coverage on shares of AZZ in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. They set a "buy" rating and a $108.00 target price on the stock. Roth Capital raised shares of AZZ to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. B. Riley raised their price target on shares of AZZ from $99.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Noble Financial reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of AZZ in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $100.71.

AZZ Trading Up 0.5 %

AZZ stock traded up $0.39 during trading on Friday, hitting $85.11. The company had a trading volume of 191,980 shares, compared to its average volume of 254,019. The stock has a market cap of $2.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.22. 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 has a 1-year low of $69.59 and a 1-year high of $99.49. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $86.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $86.29.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The industrial products company reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.03. AZZ had a return on equity of 16.99% and a net margin of 7.94%. The business had revenue of $351.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $367.78 million. As a group, analysts expect that AZZ will post 5.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 24th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 24th. AZZ's payout ratio is currently 42.77%.

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.