Hennessy Advisors Inc. Has $10.77 Million Stock Holdings in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ - Free Report) by 6.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 131,500 shares of the industrial products company's stock after acquiring an additional 8,400 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. owned approximately 0.44% of AZZ worth $10,772,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AZZ. Nordea Investment Management AB purchased a new stake in AZZ during the 4th quarter valued at $7,798,000. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC acquired a new stake in AZZ in the fourth quarter worth about $1,421,000. Delphi Management Inc. MA boosted its holdings in AZZ by 11.9% in the second quarter. Delphi Management Inc. MA now owns 23,685 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $1,830,000 after acquiring an additional 2,521 shares in the last quarter. 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 worth $55,823,000 after acquiring an additional 10,072 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of AZZ by 25.7% during the second 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 during the period. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

AZZ Price Performance

Shares of AZZ traded up $0.36 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $87.61. The company's stock had a trading volume of 96,028 shares, compared to its average volume of 161,287. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $87.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $82.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.30. AZZ Inc. has a 1-year low of $57.16 and a 1-year high of $97.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 7th. The industrial products company reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.10. AZZ had a return on equity of 16.99% and a net margin of 7.94%. The business had revenue of $403.65 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $394.30 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.19 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

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

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.