Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Invests $1.39 Million in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 4,760 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,391,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,865,000 after buying an additional 12,479 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Acuity Brands by 5.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $172,654,000 after purchasing an additional 34,032 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in Acuity Brands by 7.5% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 437,745 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $120,551,000 after purchasing an additional 30,581 shares during the last quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Acuity Brands by 2.0% during the third quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 281,308 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $77,469,000 after purchasing an additional 5,435 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in Acuity Brands by 9.3% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 269,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $74,092,000 after purchasing an additional 22,781 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of AYI stock opened at $263.01 on Friday. 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 market capitalization of $8.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $311.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $302.66. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS 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 issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.