Mackenzie Financial Corp Takes Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Mackenzie Financial Corp bought a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 1,780 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $430,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Blair William & Co. IL raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.5% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 1,435 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $386,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its position in Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 10,903 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,233,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 5,999 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,148,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 14.7% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 475 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $128,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.8% in the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,541 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $613,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE AYI opened at $306.83 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $252.99 and its 200-day moving average is $254.33. The firm has a market cap of $9.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $156.84 and a 12-month high of $307.24. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.74 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 4.88%.

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.