AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.17

AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 4th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be given a dividend of 0.17 per share by the industrial products company on Thursday, May 2nd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 16th.

AZZ has a payout ratio of 12.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect AZZ to earn $4.62 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 14.7%.

AZZ Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AZZ traded up $1.03 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $78.62. 138,762 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 143,034. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.28. AZZ has a 52 week low of $34.59 and a 52 week high of $82.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.96 and a quick ratio of 1.33. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $72.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.36.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 10th. The industrial products company reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $381.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $374.74 million. AZZ had a return on equity of 13.15% and a net margin of 5.63%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.88 EPS. Analysts predict that AZZ will post 4.3 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of AZZ

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in AZZ by 2.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,719,130 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $99,276,000 after buying an additional 64,091 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in AZZ by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,482,627 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $99,802,000 after buying an additional 14,129 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in AZZ by 7.3% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,243,000 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $59,963,000 after buying an additional 85,083 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its stake in AZZ by 4.3% in the first quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 927,071 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $38,232,000 after buying an additional 38,159 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in AZZ by 2.2% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 899,185 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $36,705,000 after buying an additional 19,257 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.93% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AZZ. Noble Financial cut AZZ from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and set a $75.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com lowered AZZ from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 9th.

AZZ Company Profile

AZZ Inc provides hot-dip galvanizing and coil coating solutions in the United States, Canada, Brazil, China, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, and India. The company operates through AZZ Metal Coatings and AZZ Precoat Metals segments. The AZZ Metal Coatings segment offers metal finishing solutions for corrosion protection, including hot-dip galvanizing, spin galvanizing, powder coating, anodizing, and plating to steel fabrication and other industries.