Xponance Inc. Grows Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Xponance Inc. boosted its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 9.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,624 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,059,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AYI. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted 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. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target 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 and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $264.17 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.18 billion, a PE ratio of 19.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. 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 12-month low of $217.64 and a 12-month high of $345.30. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $307.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $303.57.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $951.60 million for 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

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