Insider Selling: AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) CEO Sells 26,516 Shares of Stock

AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ - Get Free Report) CEO Thomas E. Ferguson sold 26,516 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.85, for a total transaction of $2,939,298.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 183,182 shares in the company, valued at $20,305,724.70. This represents a 12.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

AZZ Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AZZ traded up $0.47 during trading on Friday, reaching $109.73. 173,146 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 393,423. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $96.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $90.93. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $3.29 billion, a PE ratio of 12.72 and a beta of 1.24. AZZ Inc. has a 52-week low of $69.59 and a 52-week high of $113.58.

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

AZZ Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This is an increase from AZZ's previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AZZ's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.27%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AZZ

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AZZ. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $20,629,000 after purchasing an additional 213,355 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of AZZ by 19.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 882,308 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $72,279,000 after purchasing an additional 142,215 shares during the period. Driehaus Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AZZ in the 4th quarter worth approximately $10,612,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted 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 purchasing an additional 124,392 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new position in shares of AZZ in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $11,701,000. Institutional investors own 90.93% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AZZ. Noble Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of AZZ in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of AZZ from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of AZZ from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 12th. Sidoti downgraded shares of AZZ from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $101.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of AZZ from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $108.00.

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.