AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 489,300 shares, a growth of 16.9% from the October 31st total of 418,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 165,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.0 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AZZ. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in AZZ by 3,790.0% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 389 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 379 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of AZZ by 69.4% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 459 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in shares of AZZ in the 2nd quarter worth about $52,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in AZZ in the 2nd quarter worth about $67,000. Finally, 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in AZZ in the 2nd quarter worth about $72,000. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AZZ Price Performance

NYSE:AZZ traded up $1.99 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $93.14. The stock had a trading volume of 88,208 shares, compared to its average volume of 192,045. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 72.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $82.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $80.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a current ratio of 1.85. AZZ has a one year low of $48.19 and a one year high of $97.98.

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

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.13%.

About AZZ

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.