SVB Wealth LLC Buys 87 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

SVB Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 87 shares during the period. SVB Wealth LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $781,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of AYI. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 6.2% during the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 20,688 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,916,000 after acquiring an additional 1,200 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 3.0% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 12,834 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,429,000 after buying an additional 379 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.9% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,982,396 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $564,568,000 after buying an additional 25,598 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,395,000. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 9.1% in the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 19,747 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $3,850,000 after buying an additional 1,647 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $289.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock opened at $247.07 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $149.30 and a 12 month high of $272.74. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $255.81 and its 200-day moving average is $216.69. The company has a current ratio of 2.59, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The company has a market capitalization of $7.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.66, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.49.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

About Acuity Brands

Acuity Brands, Inc provides lighting, lighting controls, building management system, location-aware applications in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL); and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG). The ABL segment provides commercial, architectural, and specialty lighting solutions, as well as lighting controls and components for various indoor and outdoor applications under the A-Light, Aculux, American Electric Lighting, Cyclone, Dark to Light, eldoLED, Eureka, Gotham, Healthcare Lighting, Holophane, Hydrel, Indy, IOTA, Juno, Lithonia Lighting, Luminaire LED, Luminis, Mark Architectural Lighting, nLight, OPTOTRONIC, Peerless, RELOCWiring Solutions, and Sensor Switch.