Intech Investment Management LLC Acquires 20,129 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Intech Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 572.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 23,647 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,129 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $6,908,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 3,226 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $942,000 after buying an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 31.1% in the fourth quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 1,803 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $526,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $640,000. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 345.0% during the fourth quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 72,761 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $21,404,000 after purchasing an additional 56,409 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 60,500 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $17,674,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 1.1 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $264.33 on Wednesday. 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.46, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $309.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $303.22.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $951.60 million for 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%. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.72 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect 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 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.