Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. Reduces Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lessened its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 14.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 282,671 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 47,660 shares during the quarter. Acuity Brands comprises 0.8% of Jupiter Asset Management Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $82,577,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,026,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $19,703,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 741.8% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 71,744 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $20,959,000 after purchasing an additional 63,221 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $13,394,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $10,412,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $268.19 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.75, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $313.58 and a 200 day moving average of $302.82.

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, topping the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.01%.

Acuity Brands Company 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.