Smith Group Asset Management LLC Buys New Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Smith Group Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 67,446 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $19,703,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC owned about 0.22% of Acuity Brands at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of Montreal Can grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 18.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 9,650 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $2,332,000 after buying an additional 1,494 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 353.1% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $41,934,000 after purchasing an additional 135,350 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 2nd quarter worth $430,000. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the second quarter valued at about $387,000. Finally, Creative Planning increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.6% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,764 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $909,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

NYSE AYI traded up $0.58 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $328.11. The stock had a trading volume of 237,952 shares, compared to its average volume of 368,225. 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $316.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $288.57. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $345.30. The company has a market cap of $10.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The business 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 company's quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.72 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.21%. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.42%.

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.