Inspire Advisors LLC Has $1.19 Million Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Inspire Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,062 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,187,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Markel Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $876,000. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $502,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,391,000. Personal CFO Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $207,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,345 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

AYI stock opened at $268.28 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $314.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $302.70. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.31 billion, a PE ratio of 19.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.72 EPS. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.01%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

About Acuity Brands

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.