35,640 Shares in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Acquired by Proficio Capital Partners LLC

Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 35,640 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $10,412,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC owned about 0.12% of Acuity Brands as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,026,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $19,703,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 741.8% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 71,744 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $20,959,000 after purchasing an additional 63,221 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $172,654,000 after purchasing an additional 34,032 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 7.5% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 437,745 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $120,551,000 after purchasing an additional 30,581 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on AYI. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price 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, StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Three investment 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.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $263.01 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $8.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.37, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The business’s fifty day moving average is $311.42 and its 200 day moving average is $302.66. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $345.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its 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 firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.72 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Acuity Brands 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.