Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Bought by American Century Companies Inc.

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 2.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 835,521 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 20,537 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned approximately 2.72% of Acuity Brands worth $201,728,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% during the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 900.0% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Evermay Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $295.00 to $260.00 in a report on Friday, June 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $254.45 on Friday. 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.79 and a 52 week high of $272.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.83 billion, a PE ratio of 20.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.41. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $244.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $251.98.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The company had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $996.52 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.50 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 18th were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.24%. Acuity Brands’s dividend 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.