Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Holdings Raised by Wellington Management Group LLP

Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 10.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 103,162 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP owned about 3.61% of Acuity Brands worth $326,452,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of AYI opened at $263.89 on Wednesday. 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 1-year low of $217.64 and a 1-year high of $345.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $299.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $304.54.

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 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.72 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Acuity Brands from $340.00 to $310.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Acuity Brands from $336.00 to $290.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.60.

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.