Picton Mahoney Asset Management Acquires 428 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Picton Mahoney Asset Management increased its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 31.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,803 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 428 shares during the quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $526,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Ballentine Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 911 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $266,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,210,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 293 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $86,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 398 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $116,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 951 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $278,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on AYI shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 2.0 %

NYSE AYI opened at $263.01 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $311.42 and its 200 day moving average is $303.03. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The stock has a market cap of $8.14 billion, a PE ratio of 19.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. 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 yield of 0.26%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio 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.