Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Purchased by Fisher Asset Management LLC

Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 188,670 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,795 shares during the quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC owned 0.61% of Acuity Brands worth $55,116,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 63.8% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 40.9% during the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock opened at $296.94 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $316.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $301.10. The stock has a market cap of $9.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.64 and a 12-month high of $345.30.

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

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 5.01%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.