Fiduciary Group LLC Reduces Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Fiduciary Group LLC reduced its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,585 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 55 shares during the period. Fiduciary Group LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,632,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth $40,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 63.8% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Acuity Brands Price Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $266.82 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $308.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $302.96. The stock has a market cap of $8.26 billion, a PE ratio of 19.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. 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 presently 5.01%.

Acuity Brands Company 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.