Ieq Capital LLC Invests $4 Million in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Ieq Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 13,686 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $3,998,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 63.8% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 40.9% in the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 3.8 %

NYSE AYI opened at $309.11 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $9.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $317.32 and its 200-day moving average is $296.85. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $217.64 and a one year high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.72 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.22%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.01%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on AYI shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Company Profile

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.