2,421 Shares in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Bought by SVB Wealth LLC

SVB Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 2,421 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $707,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 3,552 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $978,000 after acquiring an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 40.0% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 19,512 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $5,783,000 after purchasing an additional 5,575 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 109,988 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $30,290,000 after purchasing an additional 412 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,984 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $2,199,000 after purchasing an additional 876 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Radnor Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. Radnor Capital Management LLC now owns 4,490 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,237,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company's stock.

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Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE AYI traded up $1.70 on Friday, reaching $282.06. 328,990 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 261,204. The company has a 50 day moving average of $314.89 and a 200 day moving average of $301.38. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.73 billion, a PE ratio of 20.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The company 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%. Acuity Brands's revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.72 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 is a positive change from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.24%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $341.40.

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.