1,354 Shares in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Bought by Yarbrough Capital LLC

Yarbrough Capital LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,354 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $357,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 45.3% during the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $66,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.2% during the first quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 1,526 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $402,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Trust Co grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 69.4% during the first quarter. Matrix Trust Co now owns 520 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $137,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 82.7% during the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 1,451 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $382,000 after purchasing an additional 657 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 29,415.7% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 227,271 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $59,852,000 after purchasing an additional 226,501 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price target on Acuity Brands in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Wall Street Zen raised Acuity Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 1.7%

AYI traded up $4.56 during trading on Friday, hitting $269.67. 143,437 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 302,378. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $250.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $287.05. The firm has a market cap of $8.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.81 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98.

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

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

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