AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Shares Bought by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,110,831 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 29,306 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in AZZ were worth $90,999,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AZZ. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of AZZ by 19.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 882,308 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $72,279,000 after purchasing an additional 142,215 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB purchased a new stake in shares of AZZ during the 4th quarter worth $7,798,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of AZZ during the 4th quarter worth $7,002,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of AZZ by 35.7% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 258,912 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $21,210,000 after purchasing an additional 68,131 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AZZ in the 4th quarter valued at about $5,052,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Sidoti upgraded shares of AZZ from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $101.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Noble Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of AZZ in a report on Thursday, March 6th. B. Riley raised their target price on shares of AZZ from $99.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Roth Mkm started coverage on shares of AZZ in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $108.00 target price for the company. Finally, Roth Capital upgraded shares of AZZ to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $100.71.

AZZ Price Performance

AZZ opened at $86.79 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $85.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $86.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.77. AZZ Inc. has a 1 year low of $69.59 and a 1 year high of $99.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.60 billion, a PE ratio of 58.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.22.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The industrial products company reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.03. AZZ had a net margin of 7.94% and a return on equity of 16.99%. The business had revenue of $351.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $367.78 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 EPS for the current year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 24th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 24th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.77%.

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.