AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ) saw a significant growth in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 489,300 shares, a growth of 16.9% from the October 31st total of 418,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 165,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.0 days.

AZZ Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of AZZ traded down $2.16 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $93.53. 33,821 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 227,759. 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 stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $82.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $80.56. AZZ has a 52 week low of $50.04 and a 52 week high of $97.98. The company has a market cap of $2.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.46, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.30.

AZZ (NYSE:AZZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 9th. The industrial products company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.05. AZZ had a net margin of 7.63% and a return on equity of 16.88%. The company had revenue of $409.01 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $409.50 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that AZZ will post 5.11 EPS for the current year.

AZZ Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were given 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 was Friday, October 18th. AZZ’s payout ratio is currently 53.13%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AZZ. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new stake in AZZ in the third quarter worth about $61,139,000. 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. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in AZZ by 81,999.5% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 153,526 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $11,860,000 after acquiring an additional 153,339 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in AZZ in the second quarter worth about $8,443,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of AZZ by 325.3% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 122,141 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $9,435,000 after purchasing an additional 93,420 shares during the period. 90.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AZZ Company 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.