Asset Management One Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 3,777 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $1,125,000.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth $62,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company's stock.
Shares of NYSE:AYI traded down $12.09 on Friday, reaching $309.11. The company had a trading volume of 261,838 shares, compared to its average volume of 305,231. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $345.30. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $317.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $296.85. The stock has a market capitalization 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 quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.
Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 business 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%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.72 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.
The company also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is currently 5.01%.
Several analysts have recently commented on AYI shares. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $341.40.
Read Our Latest Report on AYI
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.
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