Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Stock Position Lowered by M&T Bank Corp

M&T Bank Corp cut its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 7.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 15,924 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 1,333 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp owned 0.05% of Acuity Brands worth $4,652,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings 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 in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. 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 research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $341.40.

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Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI traded up $0.54 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $268.19. 264,417 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 261,433. 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 capitalization of $8.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $314.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $302.70.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during 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%. The business's revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This is a boost from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 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.