Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Purchased by Janney Montgomery Scott LLC

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,142 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,210,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Ballentine Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 911 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 293 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $86,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,717,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.2% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,050,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.7% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 427 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $118,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of AYI opened at $317.49 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $316.80 and its 200-day moving average is $290.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.83 billion, a PE ratio of 23.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.72 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.76 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.01%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AYI. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Oppenheimer upped their price target 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. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

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.