Sovereign s Capital Management LLC Purchases New Position in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Sovereign s Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 10,945 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $897,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AZZ. US Bancorp DE grew its position in AZZ by 39.0% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 463 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in AZZ by 202.5% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 475 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in AZZ by 32.4% in the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 515 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the period. Quarry LP grew its position in AZZ by 2,150.0% in the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 855 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 817 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its position in AZZ by 50.8% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,244 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $102,000 after purchasing an additional 419 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AZZ news, CEO Thomas E. Ferguson sold 18,851 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.91, for a total transaction of $1,694,893.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 192,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,317,295.37. This represents a 8.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

AZZ Stock Up 0.8%

AZZ opened at $92.66 on Monday. 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 fifty-two week low of $69.59 and a fifty-two week high of $99.49. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $85.04 and its 200 day moving average is $87.69. The stock has a market cap of $2.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.25.

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

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 24th were paid 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 Thursday, April 24th. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.77%.

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.