Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. Has $39.32 Million Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 22.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 134,591 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 24,603 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $39,318,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 517.6% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth approximately $62,000. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock opened at $334.63 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.64, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.40. The business has a 50-day moving average of $316.65 and a 200-day moving average of $288.84. 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 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.72 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 4.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.