CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co Has $2.29 Million Position in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co cut its holdings in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 4.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 27,997 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 1,226 shares during the period. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co owned approximately 0.09% of AZZ worth $2,294,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Barclays PLC increased its stake 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 worth $4,250,000 after purchasing an additional 40,938 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in AZZ by 22.4% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 20,073 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,658,000 after purchasing an additional 3,673 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AZZ by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 157,418 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $13,004,000 after buying an additional 10,038 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB bought a new position in shares of AZZ during the fourth quarter valued at $7,798,000. Finally, Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC bought a new position in AZZ during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,421,000. Institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on AZZ. Roth Capital upgraded AZZ to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Roth Mkm assumed coverage on AZZ in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $108.00 price target on the stock. Noble Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of AZZ in a report on Thursday, March 6th. B. Riley increased their target price on AZZ from $99.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Sidoti raised shares of AZZ from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $101.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AZZ currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $100.71.

AZZ Stock Performance

Shares of AZZ stock opened at $85.11 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $2.55 billion, a PE ratio of 57.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.22. AZZ Inc. has a 12 month low of $69.59 and a 12 month high of $99.49. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $86.42. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The industrial products company reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.03. AZZ had a return on equity of 16.99% and a net margin of 7.94%. The firm had revenue of $351.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $367.78 million. Equities research analysts expect that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 24th. AZZ’s payout ratio is presently 42.77%.

AZZ 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.