Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 1,147 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 70,083 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 1,147 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.23% of Acuity Brands worth $20,473,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth about $3,849,000. Hancock Whitney Corp boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 42.0% in the third quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 6,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,784,000 after acquiring an additional 1,917 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $484,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $813,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth approximately $462,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Acuity Brands Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $306.17 on Tuesday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $316.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $299.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market cap of $9.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.72 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.