Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Raises Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 16.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,500 shares of the electronics maker's stock after purchasing an additional 909 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.'s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,899,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth about $31,026,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $19,703,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 741.8% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 71,744 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $20,959,000 after purchasing an additional 63,221 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 5.7% during the 3rd 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 period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 7.5% during the 3rd 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI traded up $4.21 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $329.51. The stock had a trading volume of 198,700 shares, compared to its average volume of 291,011. The firm has a market cap of $10.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.26, a PEG ratio of 2.07 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, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $316.93 and a 200-day moving average of $295.13.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) 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 return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business's revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.21%. 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 presently 5.01%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on AYI. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer upped 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective 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 company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price 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.