Entropy Technologies LP Acquires 796 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Entropy Technologies LP lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 47.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,473 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 796 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $722,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 6,500 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,899,000 after acquiring an additional 909 shares in the last quarter. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 46.2% in the fourth quarter. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC now owns 2,110 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $616,000 after purchasing an additional 667 shares during the period. Hedeker Wealth LLC grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Hedeker Wealth LLC now owns 19,395 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $5,666,000 after purchasing an additional 383 shares during the period. Caitlin John LLC raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Caitlin John LLC now owns 5,616 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,641,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on AYI shares. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a 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 downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $323.56 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $316.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $292.99. 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 capitalization of $10.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The business 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 business’s 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 research analysts forecast 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 will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.