Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Acquired by Allianz Asset Management GmbH

Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 152,187 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 3,589 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $44,458,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 40.9% in the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on AYI shares. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 3.8 %

AYI stock opened at $309.11 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $217.64 and a one year high of $345.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.57 billion, a PE ratio of 22.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 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. The company has a fifty day moving average of $317.15 and a 200-day moving average of $297.44.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.72 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.