KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Invests $6.92 Million in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 23,700 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $6,923,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS owned about 0.08% of Acuity Brands at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 68,671 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $20,060,000 after acquiring an additional 284 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $687,000. Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $506,000. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 23.2% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 36,123 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $10,553,000 after acquiring an additional 6,795 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $213,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $275.18 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $306.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $303.82. 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, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal 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. This is an increase 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 0.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.01%.

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.