Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Purchased by MML Investors Services LLC

MML Investors Services LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 13.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,807 shares of the electronics maker's stock after purchasing an additional 1,197 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC's holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $2,865,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at about $3,849,000. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $232,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $19,703,000. Diversified Trust Co increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 83.1% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 5,119 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,495,000 after acquiring an additional 2,323 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 6,500 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,899,000 after acquiring an additional 909 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on shares of Acuity Brands in a research note on Friday, April 4th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $242.46 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.49 billion, a PE ratio of 17.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The business's fifty day moving average price is $262.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $297.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $216.81 and a 12 month high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. Acuity Brands's revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.38 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.16%.

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.

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