OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp Decreases Stake in AZZ Inc. $AZZ

OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp lowered its position in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 80.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 9,000 shares during the period. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp’s holdings in AZZ were worth $208,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AZZ. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of AZZ by 8.5% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 2,794 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $234,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors acquired a new position in AZZ in the first quarter valued at $210,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AZZ during the first quarter worth about $282,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of AZZ during the first quarter worth about $8,772,000. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its position in shares of AZZ by 27.4% during the first quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 94,790 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $7,925,000 after purchasing an additional 20,359 shares in the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AZZ has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut AZZ from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 13th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on AZZ from $128.00 to $121.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Zacks Research downgraded AZZ from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of AZZ from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of AZZ in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $115.43.

AZZ Trading Up 0.8%

NYSE:AZZ opened at $106.63 on Friday. AZZ Inc. has a 12-month low of $70.90 and a 12-month high of $119.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $102.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $103.70. The firm has a market cap of $3.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.25 and a beta of 1.13.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 9th. The industrial products company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $129.87 million for the quarter. AZZ had a net margin of 19.69% and a return on equity of 15.01%. Equities analysts anticipate that AZZ Inc. will post 5.13 EPS for the current year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 16th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 16th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.69%.

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.