377,354 Shares in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Bought by Norges Bank

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 377,354 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $110,236,000. Norges Bank owned about 1.22% of Acuity Brands as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AYI. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $906,930,000 after purchasing an additional 16,407 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $266,865,000 after purchasing an additional 12,479 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $172,654,000 after purchasing an additional 34,032 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 188,670 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $55,116,000 after purchasing an additional 2,795 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 135.8% during the fourth quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 180,272 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $52,663,000 after buying an additional 103,818 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on AYI shares. William Blair upgraded 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. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $340.00 to $310.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $336.00 to $290.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Finally, 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 note on Thursday, January 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $263.89 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a PE ratio of 19.43, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $299.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $304.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for 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%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.26%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Acuity Brands Company 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.