Lionshead Wealth Management LLC Makes New $573,000 Investment in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Lionshead Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 7,000 shares of the industrial products company's stock, valued at approximately $573,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AZZ. Barclays PLC increased its stake in AZZ by 389.1% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 51,458 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $4,250,000 after acquiring an additional 40,938 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in AZZ by 6.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 157,418 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $13,004,000 after acquiring an additional 10,038 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in AZZ by 23.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 22,715 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $1,861,000 after acquiring an additional 4,315 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. increased its stake in AZZ by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 131,500 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $10,772,000 after acquiring an additional 8,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC acquired a new stake in AZZ during the fourth quarter worth $1,421,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.93% of the company's stock.

AZZ Trading Up 0.9%

NYSE:AZZ opened at $91.55 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $2.74 billion, a PE ratio of 61.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $84.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $87.16. AZZ Inc. has a 12-month low of $69.59 and a 12-month high of $99.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The industrial products company reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $351.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $367.78 million. AZZ had a return on equity of 16.99% and a net margin of 7.94%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 24th. AZZ's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.77%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AZZ news, CEO Thomas E. Ferguson sold 18,851 shares of AZZ stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.91, for a total transaction of $1,694,893.41. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 192,607 shares of the company's stock, valued at $17,317,295.37. The trade was a 8.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 2.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Sidoti upgraded AZZ from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $101.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Noble Financial restated an "outperform" rating on shares of AZZ in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Roth Mkm assumed coverage on AZZ in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. They set a "buy" rating and a $108.00 price target for the company. B. Riley raised their price target on AZZ from $99.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Roth Capital upgraded AZZ to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AZZ currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $100.71.

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.

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