LPL Financial LLC Has $3.52 Million Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

LPL Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 78.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,061 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,316 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $3,523,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,923,000. Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 68,671 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $20,060,000 after purchasing an additional 284 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $687,000. Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $506,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 23.2% in the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 36,123 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $10,553,000 after buying an additional 6,795 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 target price on shares of Acuity Brands in a report on Friday, April 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock opened at $239.68 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $7.41 billion, a PE ratio of 17.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $281.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $302.04. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $216.81 and a one year high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.38 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.16%.

Acuity Brands 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.