Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Raises Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 19.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 32,841 shares of the electronics maker's stock after purchasing an additional 5,402 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 0.11% of Acuity Brands worth $9,595,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $40,000. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 67 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 equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 target price on Acuity Brands in a report on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded down $0.66 on Friday, hitting $255.63. The company's stock had a trading volume of 41,857 shares, compared to its average volume of 302,038. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.81 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The company has a market capitalization of $7.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $252.38 and a 200-day moving average price of $294.39.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. Acuity Brands's quarterly revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.38 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. 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.