Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New Investment in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 12,500 shares of the industrial products company's stock, valued at approximately $726,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in shares of AZZ by 131.5% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 903 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 513 shares during the period. Beddow Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in AZZ during the fourth quarter worth about $238,000. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AZZ in the 4th quarter worth about $255,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AZZ in the 3rd quarter worth about $203,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its position in shares of AZZ by 41.2% during the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 4,789 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $218,000 after purchasing an additional 1,398 shares during the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. B. Riley boosted their target price on AZZ from $67.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Noble Financial lowered shares of AZZ from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and set a $75.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of AZZ from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday.

AZZ Trading Down 2.4 %

AZZ stock traded down $1.75 during trading on Friday, hitting $71.49. 3,287,521 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 194,853. The company has a 50-day moving average of $75.28 and a 200-day moving average of $61.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.89. AZZ Inc. has a 1 year low of $34.59 and a 1 year high of $84.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.79 billion, a PE ratio of 20.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.28.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.23. AZZ had a return on equity of 15.66% and a net margin of 6.61%. The firm had revenue of $366.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $351.67 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.30 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that AZZ Inc. will post 4.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 16th. AZZ's payout ratio is 19.83%.

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.