Short Interest in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Decreases By 21.1%

AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 418,700 shares, a decline of 21.1% from the October 15th total of 530,800 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 163,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AZZ

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AZZ by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,726,037 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $210,750,000 after buying an additional 28,609 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in AZZ by 325.3% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 122,141 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $9,435,000 after purchasing an additional 93,420 shares during the period. Delphi Management Inc. MA lifted its position in AZZ by 11.9% during the second quarter. Delphi Management Inc. MA now owns 23,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,830,000 after purchasing an additional 2,521 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in AZZ by 8.7% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 85,547 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,608,000 after purchasing an additional 6,847 shares during the period. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in AZZ by 81,999.5% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 153,526 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $11,860,000 after purchasing an additional 153,339 shares during the period. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of AZZ in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Baird R W raised shares of AZZ to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird started coverage on shares of AZZ in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $90.00 price objective on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AZZ currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.80.

AZZ Stock Down 1.1 %

NYSE AZZ traded down $0.90 on Friday, hitting $82.93. The stock had a trading volume of 252,742 shares, compared to its average volume of 155,833. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $79.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $79.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.32. AZZ has a 52-week low of $48.03 and a 52-week high of $88.67. The stock has a market cap of $2.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.25.

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

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. AZZ’s payout ratio is currently 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.