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

Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 6.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 131,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,400 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. owned approximately 0.44% of AZZ worth $10,772,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Nordea Investment Management AB acquired a new position in AZZ in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $7,798,000. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC acquired a new position in shares of AZZ in the 4th quarter valued at $1,421,000. Delphi Management Inc. MA boosted its position in shares of AZZ by 11.9% in the 2nd quarter. Delphi Management Inc. MA now owns 23,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,830,000 after purchasing an additional 2,521 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake 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 during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of AZZ by 25.7% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 59,716 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $4,613,000 after purchasing an additional 12,226 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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 report on Friday, December 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $96.80.

AZZ Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE AZZ opened at $87.30 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.32. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $87.68 and its 200-day moving average is $82.11. AZZ Inc. has a one year low of $56.87 and a one year high of $97.98. The firm has a market cap of $2.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.30.

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

AZZ Dividend Announcement

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