Great Lakes Advisors LLC Lowers Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Great Lakes Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 5.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 52,987 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 2,944 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC owned 0.17% of Acuity Brands worth $15,479,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 891 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $260,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 3,021 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $883,000 after acquiring an additional 298 shares during the period. Inspire Advisors LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 4,062 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,187,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. Markel Group Inc. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $876,000. Finally, Sage Mountain Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $502,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $263.93 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $313.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $302.55. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a PE ratio of 19.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

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.