Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Bought by Allianz Asset Management GmbH

Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 152,187 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,589 shares during the quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH owned about 0.49% of Acuity Brands worth $44,458,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $3,849,000. Hancock Whitney Corp raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 42.0% in the 3rd quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 6,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,784,000 after acquiring an additional 1,917 shares during the period. Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $484,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $813,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $462,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $309.11 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $317.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $297.44. The company has a market cap of $9.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.76, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.72 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 is currently 5.01%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Acuity Brands 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.