Jackson Creek Investment Advisors LLC Has $564,000 Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Jackson Creek Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 99.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,931 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 964 shares during the period. Jackson Creek Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $564,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 911 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,210,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 293 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $86,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 398 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $116,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 951 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $278,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $282.06 on Friday. 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 has a market cap of $8.73 billion, a PE ratio of 20.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $314.57 and a 200-day moving average of $302.11. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $217.64 and a one year high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.72 EPS. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.24%. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on AYI shares. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.