Insider Selling: AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Insider Sells 10,321 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Kurt L. Russell, an insider at AZZ Inc., sold 10,321 shares on August 12th for around $1.15 million, reducing his ownership by 38.05%.
• AZZ Inc. recently increased its quarterly dividend to $0.20 per share, up from $0.17, representing an annualized yield of 0.7%.
• A number of analysts have raised their price targets for AZZ shares, with an average consensus target price of $108.00, buoyed by a recent "buy" rating from Wall Street Zen.

AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ - Get Free Report) insider Kurt L. Russell sold 10,321 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.21, for a total value of $1,158,119.41. Following the sale, the insider owned 16,804 shares in the company, valued at $1,885,576.84. The trade was a 38.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

AZZ Price Performance

Shares of AZZ stock traded down $0.29 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $112.59. 366,646 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 316,950. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a market cap of $3.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.05 and a beta of 1.30. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $102.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $93.49. AZZ Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.90 and a fifty-two week high of $117.35.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 9th. The industrial products company reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.19. AZZ had a return on equity of 15.54% and a net margin of 16.40%. The business had revenue of $421,962 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $435.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.46 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 EPS for the current year.

AZZ Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 31st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. This is an increase from AZZ's previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AZZ's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.27%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AZZ. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in AZZ by 554.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 251,823 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $20,629,000 after purchasing an additional 213,355 shares during the last quarter. SG Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in AZZ in the 2nd quarter valued at $16,818,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake 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 during the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in AZZ in the 4th quarter valued at $10,612,000. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of AZZ by 4.8% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 124,392 shares during the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on AZZ. Sidoti lowered AZZ from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $101.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded AZZ to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI upped their target price on AZZ from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on AZZ from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded AZZ from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $112.29.

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.