Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Position Increased by Deutsche Bank AG

Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 4.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 67,281 shares of the electronics maker's stock after purchasing an additional 3,002 shares during the quarter. Deutsche Bank AG owned about 0.22% of Acuity Brands worth $19,655,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 50.5% in the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 161 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 40.9% in the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on shares of Acuity Brands in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded up $1.39 on Friday, hitting $273.23. The company had a trading volume of 145,626 shares, compared to its average volume of 303,898. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $251.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $293.05. 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 has a market cap of $8.44 billion, a PE ratio of 20.12, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.81 and a 52 week high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business's revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.38 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.16%.

Acuity Brands 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.