Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 16,407 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker's stock after acquiring an additional 16,407 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 10.03% of Acuity Brands worth $906,930,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also 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 approximately $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth $40,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock traded up $2.02 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $265.69. The company had a trading volume of 65,358 shares, compared to its average volume of 278,024. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The company has a market cap of $8.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $299.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $304.54.

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Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for 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%. Acuity Brands's quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.72 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.26%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on AYI. Oppenheimer upped their price objective 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. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $340.00 to $310.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 27th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. Morgan Stanley raised 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 report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Acuity Brands from $336.00 to $290.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $330.60.

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.