Meritage Portfolio Management Sells 505 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Meritage Portfolio Management decreased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 30,049 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 505 shares during the period. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $8,778,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth about $3,849,000. Hancock Whitney Corp increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 42.0% during the 3rd quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 6,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,784,000 after purchasing an additional 1,917 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth approximately $484,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $813,000. Finally, McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 15.0% during the third quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 21,285 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $5,862,000 after buying an additional 2,773 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE AYI opened at $317.49 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.83 billion, a PE ratio of 23.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $345.30. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $316.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $290.95.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.76 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

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.