Janus Henderson Group PLC Cuts Stake in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ)

Janus Henderson Group PLC decreased its position in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) by 43.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,885 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 8,199 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC’s holdings in AZZ were worth $899,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of AZZ by 4.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,147,513 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $88,646,000 after purchasing an additional 53,188 shares during the period. Harvey Partners LLC boosted its holdings in AZZ by 1.8% during the third quarter. Harvey Partners LLC now owns 666,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $55,018,000 after buying an additional 12,000 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in AZZ by 10.6% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 269,101 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $20,788,000 after buying an additional 25,714 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in AZZ by 6.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 157,418 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $13,004,000 after buying an additional 10,038 shares in the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on AZZ from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $96.80.

AZZ Stock Performance

Shares of AZZ opened at $93.75 on Friday. AZZ Inc. has a 12-month low of $52.90 and a 12-month high of $97.98. The stock has a market cap of $2.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 73.24, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. The company has a 50-day moving average of $85.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $81.29.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 9th. The industrial products company reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.05. AZZ had a return on equity of 16.88% and a net margin of 7.63%. The firm had revenue of $409.01 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $409.50 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.27 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that AZZ Inc. will post 5.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. AZZ’s payout ratio is currently 53.13%.

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.