Allworth Financial LP Buys 369 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 467.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 448 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 369 shares during the quarter. Allworth Financial LP’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $131,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 40.9% during the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 3.8 %

Shares of AYI opened at $309.11 on Monday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year 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 has a 50 day simple moving average of $317.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $298.48. The stock has a market cap of $9.57 billion, a PE ratio of 22.76, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.72 EPS. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

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

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.