Victory Capital Management Inc. Trims Holdings in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lowered its stake in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 33.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 23,552 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 11,688 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned approximately 0.08% of AZZ worth $1,929,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB purchased a new position in shares of AZZ during the fourth quarter worth $7,798,000. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC purchased a new position in AZZ during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,421,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in AZZ by 23.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 22,715 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,861,000 after acquiring an additional 4,315 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. increased its stake in AZZ by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 131,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $10,772,000 after purchasing an additional 8,400 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of AZZ by 1.5% during 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AZZ has been the subject of a number of research reports. B. Riley lifted their price objective 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 research note on Tuesday, February 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $108.00 price target for the company. Noble Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of AZZ in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted 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. Finally, Roth Capital upgraded AZZ to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AZZ has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $100.67.

AZZ Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE AZZ opened at $86.63 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $90.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $85.87. The company has a market capitalization of $2.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.27. AZZ Inc. has a 1 year low of $69.59 and a 1 year high of $99.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.26.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 7th. The industrial products company reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $403.65 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $394.30 million. AZZ had a return on equity of 16.99% and a net margin of 7.94%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.19 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 30th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 30th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.95%.

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.