Massachusetts Financial Services recently announced the acquisition of new stake in The AZEK Company Inc. (NYSE:AZEK). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Industrials company by 6.38% to 9.41 million shares with purchase of 0.56 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 6.19% valued currently at $164.85 million. In addition, Wellington Management Co. LLP raised its holdings by 4.82 million to 6.78 million shares. And Impax Asset Management Ltd. has lifted its position by 9.01% or 0.39 million shares – to 4.78 million shares.
With over 5.36 million The AZEK Company Inc. (AZEK) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $17.75 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $95.12 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -15.76% and its price on 11/29/22 gained nearly 1.95%. Currently, there are 153.49M common shares owned by the public and among those 147.57M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 19 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for AZEK have a consensus price objective of $22.63. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $30.00 and a low of $16.00. The average price target is 25.89% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -10.94% over that period. But an upside of 40.83% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $23.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 43 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 26 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 144,909 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 17 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 125,683 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in The AZEK Company Inc. are Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, American Funds Small Cap World Fu, and Vanguard Total Stock Market Index. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan owns 19.1 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $334.38 million. The company bought an additional 19.1 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 12.55% of the shares outstanding. American Funds Small Cap World Fu bought 1.26 million shares to see its total holdings expand to 5.69 million shares valued at over $99.59 million and representing 3.74% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 13815.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 3.17 million shares at a value of $55.43 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index now owns shares totaling to 2.08% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of The AZEK Company Inc. (NYSE: AZEK) opened at $16.76, down -$0.65 from a prior closing price of $17.41. However, the script later moved the day high at 18.47, up 1.95%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -4.77% and -4.72% over the past three months. AZEK shares are trading -61.61% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -56.01% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $15.12 and touched a high of $46.56 over the same period. AZEK has an average intraday trading volume of 1.77 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -1.13%, 2.21%, and -13.78% respectively.
Institutional ownership of The AZEK Company Inc. (NYSE: AZEK) 153.49M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 47.29%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 54.47% and 33.96% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $2.67B. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 23.36, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $0.76. The company has a PEG of 4.58 and a Quick Ratio of 1.40 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.45. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 4.95% over the week and 4.78% over the month.
Analysts forecast that The AZEK Company Inc. (AZEK) will achieve an EPS of $0.17 for the current quarter, $0.12 for the next quarter and $0.94 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.06 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.2. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.32 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 175.20%, and -6.78% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 19 brokerage firm advisors rate The AZEK Company Inc. (AZEK) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.80. Specifically, 14 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 3 of the 19 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the AZEK, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Credit Suisse stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on October 14, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $29-$18. Deutsche Bank coverage for the The AZEK Company Inc. (AZEK) stock in a research note released on August 18, 2022 offered a Buy rating with a price target of $29. Wedbush was of a view on August 08, 2022 that the stock is Neutral, while BofA Securities gave the stock Buy rating on June 17, 2022, issuing a price target of $23- $22. BofA Securities on their part issued Neutral rating on April 25, 2022.
