AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) Sets New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

Shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $90.80 and last traded at $90.76, with a volume of 5462 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $87.66.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Wolfe Research started coverage on AZZ in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AZZ currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.80.

AZZ Trading Up 3.0 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.48, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a current ratio of 1.85. The business has a 50-day moving average of $80.71 and a 200-day moving average of $79.58.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 9th. The industrial products company reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $409.01 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $409.50 million. AZZ had a return on equity of 16.88% and a net margin of 7.63%. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.27 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that AZZ Inc. will post 5.11 EPS for the current year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio is presently 53.13%.

Institutional Trading of AZZ

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AZZ. Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new stake in AZZ during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $61,139,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of AZZ by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,223,391 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $266,284,000 after buying an additional 385,240 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in shares of AZZ by 81,999.5% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 153,526 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $11,860,000 after buying an additional 153,339 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AZZ during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $8,443,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of AZZ by 325.3% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 122,141 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $9,435,000 after buying an additional 93,420 shares in the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.