Blue Trust Inc. Acquires 292 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 17.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,994 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 292 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $549,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 883 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $258,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,969 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,159,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,210,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 911 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $266,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised 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 valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI stock opened at $334.63 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $316.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $288.84. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The stock has a market cap of $10.36 billion, a PE ratio of 24.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.40. 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 (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.20%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.42%.

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.