Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Position Lessened by Fmr LLC

FMR LLC reduced its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 26.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,997,094 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 706,030 shares during the quarter. FMR LLC owned about 6.45% of Acuity Brands worth $583,411,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $110,236,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 241.8% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 216,007 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $63,102,000 after buying an additional 152,807 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,026,000. Prudential Financial Inc. increased its position in Acuity Brands by 135.8% in the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 180,272 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $52,663,000 after acquiring an additional 103,818 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $326,452,000 after acquiring an additional 103,162 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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 report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 target price on Acuity Brands in a report on Friday, April 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE:AYI traded up $4.71 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $244.47. The company had a trading volume of 34,534 shares, compared to its average volume of 292,757. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $281.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $302.26. The firm has a market cap of $7.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.81 and a 1-year high of $345.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.38 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.