Sei Investments Co. Increases Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Sei Investments Co. raised its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 0.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 68,671 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 284 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. owned approximately 0.22% of Acuity Brands worth $20,060,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $687,000. Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $506,000. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 23.2% in the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 36,123 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $10,553,000 after buying an additional 6,795 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $213,000. Finally, Xponance Inc. grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 3,624 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,059,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note 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 Saturday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $339.80.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 1.1 %

AYI stock opened at $268.39 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $303.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $303.57. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.31 billion, a PE ratio of 19.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 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.