Ieq Capital LLC Buys Shares of 13,686 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Ieq Capital LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 13,686 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $3,998,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $266,865,000 after buying an additional 12,479 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $172,654,000 after acquiring an additional 34,032 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 7.5% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 437,745 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $120,551,000 after acquiring an additional 30,581 shares in the last quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 281,308 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $77,469,000 after acquiring an additional 5,435 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 269,043 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $74,092,000 after acquiring an additional 22,781 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on AYI shares. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Oppenheimer lifted 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, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded up $1.91 on Tuesday, hitting $307.93. 130,869 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 297,434. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $345.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market cap of $9.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.67, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. The firm's 50-day moving average is $316.92 and its 200 day moving average is $299.03.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS 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 the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm's revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.72 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. This is a boost from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. 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.