Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Purchased by Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,407 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 10.03% of Acuity Brands worth $906,930,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $3,849,000. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $232,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 213.4% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 5,040 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,388,000 after acquiring an additional 3,432 shares in the last quarter. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $19,703,000. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.3% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 7,642 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,105,000 after acquiring an additional 835 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on AYI. 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 cut their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $336.00 to $290.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $340.00 to $310.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $262.44 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $301.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $303.67.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.01%.

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.