Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC Takes Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 100 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $29,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted 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 valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 40.9% during the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on AYI. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

NYSE AYI opened at $284.51 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $316.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $301.44. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $8.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $345.30.

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

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors 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 0.24%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.