Isthmus Partners LLC Sells 32,776 Shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Isthmus Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 64.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 18,316 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 32,776 shares during the period. Isthmus Partners LLC’s holdings in AZZ were worth $1,500,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of AZZ. FMR LLC raised its position in AZZ by 13.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,223,391 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $266,284,000 after acquiring an additional 385,240 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in AZZ by 2.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,100,189 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $90,887,000 after purchasing an additional 27,710 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new position in shares of AZZ in the third quarter worth approximately $61,139,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased 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 valued at $55,823,000 after buying an additional 10,072 shares during the period. Finally, Harvey Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of AZZ by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Harvey Partners LLC now owns 666,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $55,018,000 after purchasing an additional 12,000 shares during the period. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AZZ Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of AZZ stock opened at $90.17 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $89.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $85.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.92, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.27. AZZ Inc. has a 12-month low of $69.59 and a 12-month high of $99.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 7th. The industrial products company reported $1.39 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $394.30 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.19 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 EPS for the current year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 30th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 30th. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.95%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Roth Mkm initiated coverage on shares of AZZ in a research note 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 AZZ from $99.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Roth Capital raised shares of AZZ to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AZZ currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $100.67.

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.