HighTower Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 10.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,021 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 298 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $883,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth $31,026,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $19,703,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 741.8% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 71,744 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $20,959,000 after purchasing an additional 63,221 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $13,394,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $10,412,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $340.00 to $310.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Three investment 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 a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $339.80.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $268.39 on Friday. 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $303.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $303.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.72 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.