Swiss National Bank Purchases 500 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Swiss National Bank grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 60,500 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.20% of Acuity Brands worth $17,674,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 891 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $260,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 3,021 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $883,000 after acquiring an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 4,062 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,187,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Markel Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $876,000. Finally, Sage Mountain Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $502,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 1.1 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $264.33 on Wednesday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $345.30. The company has a market cap of $8.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $309.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $303.22. 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 (NYSE:AYI) 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. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.17 dividend. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on AYI. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

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.