AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) Lifted to “Buy” at StockNews.com

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) was upgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Noble Financial downgraded AZZ from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $75.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, March 22nd. B. Riley upped their price target on AZZ from $67.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday.

AZZ Stock Down 11.1 %

AZZ stock traded down $9.16 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $73.27. The company had a trading volume of 684,120 shares, compared to its average volume of 173,229. The company has a current ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $75.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.43. AZZ has a 12 month low of $34.59 and a 12 month high of $84.52. The company has a market capitalization of $1.84 billion, a PE ratio of 21.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.28.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $366.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $351.67 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AZZ will post 4.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of AZZ

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AZZ. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in AZZ during the third quarter valued at $389,000. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC increased its position in AZZ by 14.7% during the third quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,357 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $244,000 after acquiring an additional 688 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its position in AZZ by 41.2% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 4,789 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $218,000 after acquiring an additional 1,398 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in AZZ by 2.1% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 11,079 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $505,000 after acquiring an additional 231 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new stake in AZZ during the third quarter valued at $485,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

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.