AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Receives $108.00 Average PT from Brokerages

Key Points

• AZZ Inc. has received a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from eight research firms, with an average 1-year target price set at $108.00.
• The company recently increased its quarterly dividend to $0.20 per share, up from $0.17, reflecting a 0.7% dividend yield.
• During its last quarterly earnings, AZZ reported an EPS of $1.78, exceeding expectations and showing a year-over-year revenue growth of 2.1%.

Shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ - Get Free Report) have received an average rating of "Buy" from the nine analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $112.2857.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Noble Financial restated an "outperform" rating on shares of AZZ in a report on Monday, July 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of AZZ to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of AZZ from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, July 12th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of AZZ from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Sidoti downgraded shares of AZZ from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $101.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, June 9th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AZZ news, insider Kurt L. Russell sold 10,321 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.21, for a total value of $1,158,119.41. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 16,804 shares in the company, valued at $1,885,576.84. This represents a 38.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Bryan Lee Stovall sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.60, for a total transaction of $558,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 22,709 shares in the company, valued at $2,534,324.40. This represents a 18.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 46,837 shares of company stock worth $5,195,318 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.77% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AZZ

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in AZZ by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 101,984 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $9,635,000 after acquiring an additional 7,194 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in AZZ by 182.3% in the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,995 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $283,000 after acquiring an additional 1,934 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in AZZ by 22.7% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 4,298 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $406,000 after acquiring an additional 795 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of AZZ by 64.6% in the 2nd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 25,092 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $2,371,000 after purchasing an additional 9,846 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in shares of AZZ by 118.5% in the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 4,386 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $414,000 after purchasing an additional 2,379 shares during the period. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AZZ Price Performance

Shares of AZZ stock traded down $0.29 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $112.59. The company's stock had a trading volume of 366,646 shares, compared to its average volume of 316,950. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $102.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $93.49. AZZ has a one year low of $70.90 and a one year high of $117.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.51 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The stock has a market cap of $3.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.05 and a beta of 1.30.

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

AZZ Increases Dividend

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

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.