Renaissance Technologies LLC Buys 70,600 Shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in shares of AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ – Get Rating) by 109.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 135,100 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 70,600 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in AZZ were worth $4,933,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AZZ. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its position in AZZ by 659.4% during the third quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,420 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 1,233 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its position in AZZ by 34.5% during the third quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,380 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $87,000 after purchasing an additional 611 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in AZZ during the second quarter worth about $93,000. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in AZZ by 80.4% during the third quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,670 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $101,000 after purchasing an additional 1,190 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of AZZ by 31.5% in the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,431 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $117,000 after buying an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of AZZ from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $48.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, January 13th.

AZZ Trading Down 3.5 %

Shares of AZZ stock opened at $40.28 on Friday. AZZ Inc. has a 12-month low of $30.21 and a 12-month high of $50.75. The company has a market cap of $1.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -38.36 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $41.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.36.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 9th. The industrial products company reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $373.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $359.80 million. AZZ had a negative net margin of 2.46% and a positive return on equity of 15.04%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 176.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.85 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that AZZ Inc. will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 7th. Investors of record on Monday, January 30th were paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 27th. AZZ’s dividend payout ratio is currently -64.76%.

AZZ Company Profile

(Get Rating)

AZZ Inc engages in the provision of hot-dip galvanizing and coil coating solutions to a broad range of end-markets. It operates through the following segments: AZZ Metal Coatings, AZZ Precoat Metals, and AZZ Infrastructure Solutions. The AZZ Metal Coatings segment provides hot-dip galvanizing, spin galvanizing, powder coating, anodizing and plating, and other metal coating applications to the steel fabrication and other industries through facilities located throughout the United States and Canada.