Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Acquired by Global Retirement Partners LLC

Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 81.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 518 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 232 shares during the period. Global Retirement Partners LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $151,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,050,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $242,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its position in Acuity Brands by 7.2% during the third quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 3,552 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $978,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Acuity Brands by 0.3% in the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,717,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $211,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $309.32 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $9.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $316.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $299.65. 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 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.72 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AYI. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective 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. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Three equities 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $341.40.

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.