AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Short Interest Down 13.1% in November

AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) saw a large decrease in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 425,000 shares, a decrease of 13.1% from the November 15th total of 489,300 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 169,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in AZZ by 22.4% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 20,073 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,658,000 after acquiring an additional 3,673 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of AZZ by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 675,603 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $55,823,000 after purchasing an additional 10,072 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of AZZ by 389.1% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 51,458 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,250,000 after purchasing an additional 40,938 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of AZZ during the third quarter valued at approximately $448,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd grew its holdings in AZZ by 40.7% during the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 8,676 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $717,000 after buying an additional 2,511 shares in the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $96.80.

AZZ Stock Performance

Shares of AZZ opened at $93.75 on Friday. AZZ has a one year low of $52.90 and a one year high of $97.98. The company has a market cap of $2.80 billion, a PE ratio of 73.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.30. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $85.21 and a 200-day moving average of $81.29. 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 (NYSE:AZZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 9th. The industrial products company reported $1.37 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations of $409.50 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that AZZ will post 5.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a $0.17 dividend. 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 53.13%.

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.