Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Securian Asset Management Inc.

Securian Asset Management Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,311 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 121 shares during the period. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $675,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AYI. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 32.8% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 27,042 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $7,447,000 after acquiring an additional 6,679 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 9,973 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,746,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 26.8% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,669 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $735,000 after purchasing an additional 564 shares in the last quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.0% in the third quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 281,308 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $77,469,000 after purchasing an additional 5,435 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.9% in the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 9,473 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,609,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 2.0 %

NYSE AYI opened at $263.01 on Monday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.64 and a 1-year high of $345.30. 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 market capitalization of $8.14 billion, a PE ratio of 19.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $311.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $303.03.

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

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have 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. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Oppenheimer increased 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, Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.