Focus Partners Wealth Buys 1,529 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Focus Partners Wealth grew its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 40.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,265 shares of the electronics maker's stock after buying an additional 1,529 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth's holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,540,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $232,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $19,703,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 6,500 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $1,899,000 after purchasing an additional 909 shares during the period. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 22,620 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $6,608,000 after purchasing an additional 1,335 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 22.4% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 134,591 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $39,318,000 after purchasing an additional 24,603 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AYI. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price 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 shares of Acuity Brands in a report on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three research 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 currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 3.0%

AYI stock traded down $7.99 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $261.66. The company had a trading volume of 69,488 shares, compared to its average volume of 365,377. The company has a market capitalization of $8.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.27, 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. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $252.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $292.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share 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 firm's revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.38 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.26%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio is presently 5.16%.

Acuity Brands Company 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.