Victory Capital Management Inc. Has $11.28 Million Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 42.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 38,625 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 11,583 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned approximately 0.12% of Acuity Brands worth $11,284,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,865,000 after acquiring an additional 12,479 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $172,654,000 after purchasing an additional 34,032 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 437,745 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $120,551,000 after buying an additional 30,581 shares during the period. Seizert Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 281,308 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $77,469,000 after buying an additional 5,435 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 269,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $74,092,000 after purchasing an additional 22,781 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 2.5 %

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $257.33 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $217.64 and a one year high of $345.30. 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 firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $312.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $302.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.95, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

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 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 firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.72 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect 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 paid a $0.17 dividend. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.26%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.01%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. William Blair raised 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 research note on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective 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, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

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.