Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Bought by Allianz Asset Management GmbH

Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 152,187 shares of the electronics maker's stock after buying an additional 3,589 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH owned approximately 0.49% of Acuity Brands worth $44,458,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 64.3% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 4,600 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $1,344,000 after buying an additional 1,800 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $3,998,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 81.1% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 518 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $151,000 after purchasing an additional 232 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 398 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $116,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, Truist Financial Corp increased its position in Acuity Brands by 60.2% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 7,807 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $2,281,000 after acquiring an additional 2,934 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the subject of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised 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 note on Tuesday, January 14th. 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 note on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.5 %

NYSE:AYI traded up $1.46 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $309.32. The company's stock had a trading volume of 300,559 shares, compared to its average volume of 300,774. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $316.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $299.58. 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 company has a market capitalization of $9.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.72 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. 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. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

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.