Level Four Advisory Services LLC Has $1.60 Million Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Level Four Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 40.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,465 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,577 shares during the quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,597,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AYI. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $110,236,000. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth $31,026,000. Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 103,818 shares during the last quarter. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $19,703,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Acuity Brands by 741.8% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 71,744 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $20,959,000 after purchasing an additional 63,221 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the subject of several research reports. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. 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 shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of 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 decreased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $336.00 to $290.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $330.60.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 2.0 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $262.44 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $301.88 and its 200-day moving average is $304.04. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The firm has a market cap of $8.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.01%.

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.