Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC Lowers Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 25.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 36,000 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 12,000 shares during the quarter. Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $10,517,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AYI. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 2.1 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $323.71 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $316.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $290.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.84, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted 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 return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.17 dividend. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 4.42%.

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.