Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 70,083 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 1,147 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.23% of Acuity Brands worth $20,473,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,026,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $19,703,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 741.8% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 71,744 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $20,959,000 after buying an additional 63,221 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Acuity Brands by 5.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $172,654,000 after buying an additional 34,032 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 7.5% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 437,745 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $120,551,000 after buying an additional 30,581 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on AYI. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded down $2.16 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $296.94. 517,958 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 308,317. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $345.30. The company has a fifty day moving average of $316.92 and a 200-day moving average of $299.65. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $9.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.01%.

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.