Foundations Investment Advisors LLC Acquires 4,346 Shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Key Points

• Foundations Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in AZZ Inc. by 151.1% during the first quarter, owning 7,222 shares valued at approximately $604,000.
• AZZ's stock is currently rated as a "Moderate Buy" with a consensus target price of $108.00 from various analysts, showing potential for future growth.
• The company recently increased its quarterly dividend to $0.20 per share, reflecting a positive change from the previous $0.17 dividend, with an annualized yield of 0.7%.

Foundations Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ - Free Report) by 151.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,222 shares of the industrial products company's stock after acquiring an additional 4,346 shares during the quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in AZZ were worth $604,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AZZ. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in shares of AZZ by 17.6% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 5,676 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $465,000 after buying an additional 850 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in AZZ by 8.9% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 63,111 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $5,170,000 after purchasing an additional 5,145 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in AZZ by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 16,745 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,372,000 after purchasing an additional 1,767 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in AZZ during the fourth quarter valued at $475,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in AZZ by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 11,261 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $923,000 after purchasing an additional 704 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.93% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AZZ. Wall Street Zen raised AZZ from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 12th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on AZZ from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Noble Financial reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of AZZ in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on AZZ from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Sidoti cut AZZ from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $101.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AZZ currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $108.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at AZZ

In other AZZ news, COO Bryan Lee Stovall sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.98, for a total transaction of $539,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 27,709 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,992,017.82. This represents a 15.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Thomas E. Ferguson sold 26,516 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.85, for a total value of $2,939,298.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 183,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,305,724.70. This represents a 12.64% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.77% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

AZZ Stock Performance

Shares of AZZ stock traded down $0.50 during trading on Monday, reaching $105.82. The company's stock had a trading volume of 47,688 shares, compared to its average volume of 259,108. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.51. The business's fifty day moving average price is $98.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $91.87. The firm has a market cap of $3.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.26 and a beta of 1.30. AZZ Inc. has a one year low of $69.59 and a one year high of $114.49.

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

AZZ Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. This is a positive change from AZZ's previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AZZ's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.27%.

AZZ 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.