Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Bought by Janney Montgomery Scott LLC

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,142 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,210,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth about $62,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $317.49 on Wednesday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $345.30. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $316.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $290.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.83 billion, a PE ratio of 23.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.72 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.01%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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