Bank of New York Mellon Corp Lowers Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp cut its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 267,151 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 4,441 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned 0.86% of Acuity Brands worth $78,043,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 63.8% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 40.9% during the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Three investment 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 company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE AYI traded up $2.75 on Thursday, hitting $279.59. 570,861 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 260,950. The business's 50 day moving average price is $315.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $301.54. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $345.30. 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 company has a market capitalization of $8.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $951.60 million for 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 quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. 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.