Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Bought by Sterling Capital Management LLC

Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 9.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,335 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 462 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,559,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth $3,849,000. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $232,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $19,703,000. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 12.3% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 7,642 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,105,000 after buying an additional 835 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Trust Co boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 83.1% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 5,119 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,495,000 after buying an additional 2,323 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on Acuity Brands in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $238.12 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $279.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $302.04. 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 market cap of $7.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.81 and a 1-year high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.38 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS 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. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 5.16%.

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.