Sanctuary Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 13,652 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 586 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $3,988,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% in the 4th 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% in the 4th 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 during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the subject of several research reports. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of 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 research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 3.8 %

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $309.11 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 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 capitalization of $9.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.76, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $317.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $296.85.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.72 EPS. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

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.