Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ Acquires 900 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 47.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,800 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 900 shares during the quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $676,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 38.1% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 51,890 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $13,913,000 after buying an additional 14,329 shares during the last quarter. Quantedge Capital Pte Ltd bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth approximately $737,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 148.4% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 4,397 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,166,000 after purchasing an additional 2,627 shares in the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 8.0% in the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,846 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $6,965,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 25.8% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 47,372 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $9,703,000 after purchasing an additional 9,729 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.1 %

Acuity Brands stock opened at $271.84 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $247.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $252.64. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The firm has a market cap of $8.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.84 and a twelve month high of $275.05.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.82 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $996.52 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. Acuity Brands’s revenue was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.50 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 18th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.88%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, June 28th. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $279.00.

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.