Hennessy Advisors Inc. Purchases 8,400 Shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 6.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 131,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,400 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AZZ were worth $10,772,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. CWM LLC grew its position in AZZ by 51.2% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 694 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of AZZ by 3,790.0% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 389 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 379 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its position in shares of AZZ by 11.5% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 3,971 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $309,000 after acquiring an additional 409 shares during the last quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC raised its holdings in AZZ by 2.8% during the third quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 15,155 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,222,000 after acquiring an additional 413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in AZZ during the second quarter valued at approximately $52,000. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

AZZ Price Performance

NYSE:AZZ opened at $87.30 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. AZZ Inc. has a 12-month low of $56.87 and a 12-month high of $97.98. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $87.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $82.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.30.

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

AZZ Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 30th will be given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. AZZ’s payout ratio is 45.95%.

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.